On May 23 Cheyenne Purrington announced her resignation as the executive director of Deschutes County's Coordinated Houseless Response Office, after about nine months into her tenure. Deschutes County's CHRO is one of eight offices formed under House Bill 4123, which sent $1 million to eight Oregon counties to form an office that strengthens partnerships between service providers and municipal governments. In her resignation letter, Purrington recommended cutting her position entirely and replacing it with three full-time staff members. For months Purrington was the sole employee at the office, and she said three employees would better serve the CHRO's governing board and reduce public pressure on a single individual.
Purrington's resignation letter said many of the roles, responsibilities and authority of the office remained ill-defined after nine months into the two-year pilot program. She said there was little consensus between communities on what the office's purpose was, that there were no performance metrics and no framework how the governing board, comprised of elected officials at different local governments, would collaborate with an advisory board made up of local homeless service providers.
"The idea is that we should have, and we were supposed to have, a roles and responsibilities discussion where we really talked about what we are willing to do as government entities, and what our major roles are as government entities," said Megan Perkins, a Bend city councilor who sits on the CHRO's governing board. "We never quite got to that point and never had that discussion."
Flaws in the system
Perkins said cities like Bend can help most with things such as infrastructure, permitting and connecting service providers with land, while the county, as a regional public health and behavioral health authority, is best suited for providing operational support for shelters. But the governing board only met infrequently. Last June the governing board convened to appoint a chair. The governing board didn't meet again until January, and since then has met in March and April.
"The governing board only met a few times. We met once, I believe it was in the summer, set up who was going to be chair and vice chair, and then did not meet again for multiple months," Perkins said. "I want to take some responsibility for the fact that we've done a lot of talking and haven't moved things along just as quickly as they need to move along. There are certain things that we have to do with this legislation that we're under, and then there are also things that we should be doing."
Perkins said the slow start was in part to provide Purrington an opportunity to get settled into her role. Then, 2022 elections changed the composition of the governing board and further delayed progress. Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair is the governing board chair and is responsible for calling meetings. She said despite few meetings, they've been lengthy and substantive and she's expecting progress in the coming months.
"Our last meeting was four hours," Purrington said. "There's all these different sides to the story, but I know we can all work together."
The CHRO met eight of 14 requirements laid out in the text of HB 4123, but some of the lengthier and more challenging goals haven't been completed. The CHRO's goal to form an advisory council and adopt an interim work plan are as yet unfinished. An updated strategic plan is due Aug. 30 per HB 4123's text, and the lack of progress on it alarmed County Commissioner Phil Chang earlier this month, according to KTVZ.
"There was a lot of confusion about what the strategic plan was, what the work plan was, what the next steps were, who was doing what, and so that's why I believe we really did not see eye to eye on how we could be moving forward with this work as a governing board, but also from a community standpoint as well," Perkins said.
Another unfinished goal is developing a plan of coordination with the Homeless Leadership Coalition, which is Central Oregon's continuum of care — a federally mandated program of regional planning bodies that coordinate housing and services for homeless people. The HLC already coordinates with service providers around the community, and the office is meant to support furthering efforts in the same realm.
"I think the bill that we had drafted in 2022 created a level of flexibility for local communities," said Rep. Jason Kropf (D-Bend), the author of HB 4123. "When I looked at the people that our community partners had doing the work, I thought, we have incredible people doing incredible things. And the goal of this was just like, how do you sort of coordinate, maximize and build on those efforts."
While the CHRO mandate is broad, the HLC's is more clearly defined. It's responsible for organizing the annual Point in Time Count, which identifies the number of people experiencing homelessness as well as their demographics. It administers the Homeless Management Information System that gives homeless service providers client information. It oversees the Coordinated Entry System, which promotes services to people experiencing homelessness. Its other responsibilities align closely with those given to the CHRO. The HLC promotes best practices to service providers, identifies gaps in homeless services and coordinates with providers to address them and secures funding for different programs.
In Purrington's resignation letter she suggests the program be rehoused under the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, a group of regional governments in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson Counties, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. COIC collaborates with local governments to provide services in transportation, employment, education, economic development and homelessness — the HLC operates under the umbrella of the intergovernmental organization. COIC also formed the Multi-Agency Coordination Group, which is responsible for dispersing $13.9 million of Gov. Tina Kotek's homeless state of emergency funds in Central Oregon. Though some aspects of the HLC and the CHRO are duplicative, the HLC welcomed more investment in homeless service systems.
"[Homeless response systems] have been under-invested in, so there's an opportunity to really strengthen the response and make sure that more community members can access resources. The limits of what we're able to do as the HLC and also its members is really because there hasn't been enough investment historically. So that's, that's been a great opportunity to see the state respond both through House Bill 4123, but also through the recent executive orders," said Lindsey Stailing, secretary of the HLC.
Purrington's resignation letter says her role as director was undefined and had little authority, and much of her time was spent on emergent political priorities, namely responding to cleanings of homeless camps. The CHRO advocates for harm reduction, coordinating services and identifying alternative locations, but local government actions directly conflict with those goals.
"The entanglement of encampment removals with the strategies and solutions promoted by this Office has strained our staff, partnerships and mission," Purrington wrote.
Purrington's problems
Three months after the governing board selected Purrington to run the CHRO for a $12,400 monthly salary, the last organization she ran was threatened with litigation by the California Department of Justice. The California DOJ alleged the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless, where Purrington served as executive director since 2019, breached its contract due to financial uncertainty that could impact is ability to maintain the Bear's Den, a motel-turned-affordable-housing facility granted to the organization under Project Homekey — a program like Oregon's Project Turnkey but geared more toward long-term housing.
"TCH is in a precarious financial state that raises serious doubts about its ability to continue to operate Bear's Den," Deputy Attorney General Carlos Mejia wrote to the organization in November. "As a consequence, the Department can no longer tolerate the status quo and will require judicially approved action to ensure the continued use of Bear's for affordable housing and a means of operating should TCH cease to function."
Auditors who investigated the finances of TCH in 2021 said there are "substantial doubts" over whether the organization could continue to exist. Gregory Walker, a local blogger with a history of incendiary social media posts, questioned whether Purrington was honest in her resume for the position, in an article posted to Linkedin. Purrington lists an economics degree from Mills College and a LEED Certification in operations and maintenance, which is used to develop properties to fit within green energy frameworks. A directory of LEED certified individuals lists Purrington as a student, and Walker said Purrington rejected a request to release information about her economics degree in his article.
Pending public records requests will reveal more about the TCH and the veracity of Purrington's resume, and we'll update the story once they've been processed.
Future of the CHRO
At the first Coordinated Houseless Response Office board of directors meeting since Purrington announced her resignation, the representatives decided on three subcommittees to find a path forward: Leadership, strategies and governance. The leadership subcommittee will search for an alternate structure rather than the executive director role Purrington held. The strategy subcommittee will delve into how communities will agree to cooperate in the group, and the evolution of the upcoming strategic plan. And the governance subcommittee will look at transitioning into a different host agency, like COIC. Tammy Baney, executive director of COIC, said during the meeting that the organization would be open to learning more about absorbing the office, if it's allowed in HB 4123.
"I think the difficulty comes in sometimes when you're trying to do that as almost a hole-in-a-doughnut of a region where your service providers are regional," Baney said before the meeting. "There is a need to align efforts and leverage resources across the region. And as the largest populated area in Deschutes, clearly having dedicated resources to assist in that is never a bad thing."