METRO SHS Funded Workforce: 1,042 Full-Time Equivalents (FTE)/$78 Million Annual Cost.

My last post.

In August I pointed out to the Metro SHS Oversight Committee that METRO had not published any data on the size of the SHS funded workforce. Instead, annual reports had information on pay equity for different job classifications. Pay equity reports included counts of employees surveyed by job category but did NOT break out SHS funded positions.

Even the recent Metro SHS audit had ONLY Metro government FTE counts with NO data on non governmental or county FTE counts funded by SHS. 

In response to my August request for FTE information,

• Metro provided counts for their staff.
• Over the next several months the three counties provided counts (following my public record requests). 
• Clackamas County required me to pay $250 for their FTE information. I likely would have prevailed if I appealed to District Attorney, but with my health condition time was more valuable then money. 

The two tables pasted below show the FTE counts by county and an estimate of the annual cost for these FTE using a $60,000 average salary and 25%/$15,000 fringe benefits.

The tables show a total SHS funded workforce of 1,042 FTE positions at an annual estimated salary and fringe cost of $75 million.

780/75% of these positions are in non-governmental organizations with 262/25% in government agencies.

As a point of reference, OHCS has a statewide authorized budget, for ALL of its programs, of about 450 FTE. That's about 1.7 the size of the 262 SHS funded government positions. (This does NOT include non governmental positions funded by OHCS). 

I consider these estimates the lower bound of actual SHS funded FTE authorized as they do not include estimates for City of Portland funded SHS positions and executive positions are also likely excluded. Indirect admin costs, which often exceed 25%, are also NOT included. 

On the flip side, not all authorized positions are filled. 

Is this the "Homeless Industrial Complex" ?

It’s inevitable that some will reference these FTE counts as illustrative of the "homeless industrial complex". I look at it instead as representative of the inevitable cost of high touch programs like SHS that combine services with housing and mix assistance for chronic homeless persons with assistance for households who may be in danger of homelessness. 

Instead of shying away from tracking and sharing this information, the counties 

• Need to do a better job of informing the public of the size of the SHS funded workforce and NOT just on pay equity issues currently found in annual reports. The simple Excel spreadsheet provided by Clackamas County is an good starting point.
• Need to do a better job of informing the public of the metrics they are using to track workload and progress, including per person workload expectations. How many PSH placements were made with 1,000+FTE"s?

And METRO should require the public posting of ALL SHS funded service contracts, including FTE counts.  

I have consolidated the public record responses from the counties into a single 4 page PDF file HERE, with the two tables below as a initial page.

 

Created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog,