Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s big campaign promise was to end unsheltered homelessness in the city by 2026. One part of that effort involves reuniting unhoused people with family members or loved ones outside of Portland.
Individuals can opt into the program or be referred by a member of the city’s outreach team. Outreach workers then connect with the person’s family or friends and arrange transportation to their new community. Contact largely ceases after the individual arrives at their destination.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp is the director of Portland Solutions, the office that oversees homeless services in the city. She joins us to talk more about the reunification program.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s central campaign promise was to end unsheltered homelessness in the city by 2026. Creating many more shelter beds is at the heart of that strategy, but there’s another effort as well: to reunite unhoused people with family members or loved ones outside of Portland. And the mayor has a bold goal there as well. He says 700 people will be reunited next year.
We want to know how the program actually works so we’ve invited Skyler Brocker-Knapp back onto the show. She’s a director of Portland Solutions. That’s the office that oversees homeless services in the city. Welcome back to the show.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp: Thanks for having me, Dave.
Miller: How did the city’s reunification program get started?
Brocker-Knapp: This is the best practice around the country and actually something that’s been done for decades. Multnomah County had a program called Ticket Home with Transition Projects for years. It’s no longer funded and Mayor Wilson really wanted to supercharge this effort when he took office.
Miller: How is what Portland is doing now different from what the county did for 10 years or so?
Brocker-Knapp: Compared to the Ticket Home Program, we’re trying to be faster. We’re trying to cut the red tape and the time it takes to get somebody connected to a ticket – whether it’s a bus, train or plane ticket – and to their family. A number of hours is kind of what we’re aiming for, rather than days.
Miller: How do people get referred or identified for this program?
Brocker-Knapp: They’re referred in through a number of different pathways: service providers, outreach workers, first responders. And then they can also call 311, the city operator service.
Miller: And when that happens, what are the steps? What’s that first conversation like?
Brocker-Knapp: We have our outreach team connect with that individual and do their due diligence, have a deep conversation with that person to see if they’re right for the program. They’ll then connect with a loved one, whether it’s a friend or a family member, where that person wants to go, and have a separate conversation with that person to make sure they’re going to a supportive environment. Then we have our administrative team buy a ticket, depending on where someone’s going. If it’s local, a bus ticket. But if it’s going to be further out of town – Bismarck, North Dakota, for example, or we’ve had folks in New York or Maine – they’ll buy a plane ticket for them.
Miller: I’m curious about those two conversations. The first one, obviously, with the person experiencing homelessness here. You said you have to make sure that they’re right for this program, so what are the questions people are asking? What are the potential red flags? How do you know someone is right?
Brocker-Knapp: It’s a great question and I think part of it’s a gut check from our outreach team. Our outreach workers have worked in this field for decades. They really understand the folks that they’re working with. They’ve really seen all the stories that you can imagine. They’ll have a deep conversation with them, talk to the person who’s also the referral partner – the outreach worker who’s worked with that individual, a first responder, a service provider, maybe a shelter worker who’s referring that person in.
They ask questions like, “OK, why do you want to go home? Why are you in Portland? How did you arrive here? What’s it like at home? Is that a supportive environment?” And make sure they really want to go home. It has to be voluntary and not everybody’s right for this program, so it really has to fit those different criteria. People have to not have a warrant for a felony or anything like that. There really have to be some checks to make sure that the person can actually go home safely and securely.
Miller: Is one of the questions to the person in Portland – before we get to the other side, the person in Bismarck or wherever – “Were you kicked out of this home, did you burn bridges there?” Is that an explicit question?
Brocker-Knapp: I think it depends on the person. They’re really depending the questions based on the answers they’re getting and the feel of what that person wants to talk about. Yes, I think we need to make sure that that environment is safe, secure and supportive. That’s a large part of the conversation. I think some people respond differently to blunt and specific questions. It really depends on the person. We’ve worked with victims of domestic violence and trafficking victims, and every person’s going to need a tailored conversation that really is trauma-informed.
Miller: And then what about the other side? I imagine first you have to talk to the person in Portland, and then if you get contact information, you’re talking to a family or a friend. What are those conversations like?
Brocker-Knapp: That conversation is really important because you want to make sure the person is landing in a safe and supportive environment. They’re coming from homelessness. They’re coming from a really vulnerable position. It’s important that we make sure that there’s space for the person at home, a room for them to be in, that there’s sufficient food, income, that they can actually have that supportive environment. Somebody can care for them, and they’re not just going somewhere and not having access to those different pieces of support. That piece is really what folks focus on, but I think the outreach team also really looks for that emotional connection, that someone is really loving and wants them to be there.
The voluntariness has to be on both ends, so it really is important that somebody wants someone to come home. Some of the stories that we’ve seen through this program even so far [are] of parents who’ve been looking for their child, or someone who’s been looking for their brother or sister for years at a time and are crying on the phone because they finally know where they’ve been. So that’s really wonderful.
Miller: In those cases, how is it that you’re able to find people in a couple of hours? If it’s that easy to do, why hasn’t this been done before in some of these cases?
Brocker-Knapp: It has been done kind of as a best practice through different service providers-
Miller: If other cities are doing this, and Multnomah County, I guess I’m wondering, if it would be … in a couple hours, if city outreach workers can find people’s families and reunite them, why haven’t these individuals already been reunited? If they’re ready to go back home and if their home is ready to take them, why aren’t they already at home? Is it as simple and profound as paying for a plane ticket, or are there other barriers?
Brocker-Knapp: I think there’s many different barriers that have led this person to homelessness. I think a lot of people don’t know who to ask or that that’s even something that’s possible. We’re encountering quite a few folks who didn’t even know that this was a possibility, that there’s a program that will pay for them to get back to their loved one. I think part of it is a messaging piece, letting outreach workers, service providers and first responders know that this is a possibility. Then they can ask that question and really make sure that folks know that this is something that’s possible, that we can make happen.
Miller: How often does it happen that after these conversations, an outreach worker says, “sorry, this is not going to work.” Just in terms of numbers, do you know how common that is?
Brocker-Knapp: More common that once someone has reached my outreach worker, that it is gonna be a successful program participant, but it does happen. I would say, if I’m guessing, I think between 30% and 40% of the time, maybe.
Miller: But in cases where it does work, you’re saying that in just a number of hours you can go from identifying someone as a possibility to buying a plane ticket?
Brocker-Knapp: My outreach team works really quickly and that was the impetus for this program, to really cut through the red tape. What they’re doing is saying, OK, you’ve been referred to us, we’re going to work diligently for the next couple of hours to get you on the next plane, train or bus. When folks even don’t have identification, we’ve been really excited about partnerships with the Port of Portland, with Amtrak and with Greyhound, where they let us walk the person to that bus, plane or train and actually get through security with them.
Miller: TSA lets you do that?
Brocker-Knapp: Yes.
Miller: They let you put people on planes without IDs?
Brocker-Knapp: They’ve been amazing partners. We’ve been able to prove the person is who they say they are, and we’re going to provide you with some kind of identification, but they don’t have the proper identification necessarily.
Miller: That’s an extraordinary thing cross-jurisdictionally, in an era when many of us are still taking our shoes off, belts and whatever, that the city can actually get people on planes without IDs.
Brocker-Knapp: It’s been wonderful. That joint partnership has been great.
Miller: You mentioned New York, North Dakota and Maine. What does the map look like in terms of where people have ended up?
Brocker-Knapp: A lot out of state, a lot on the West Coast. Spokane and Seattle are kind of hotspots, as well as North Dakota, but a lot of out-of-state folks. We really are not quite at all 50 states, but really all across the country.
Miller: What have you learned about where people have come from? One of the long-standing, very contentious issues in Portland, but I’ve heard versions of this everywhere – I shouldn’t shouldn’t say everywhere, but in a lot of West Coast cities and a lot of cities that have large populations of people experiencing homelessness – is a sense among some housed members of those communities that we are a kind of magnet for people who are already homeless and want to come here “because it’s easier.” The fact that there are large numbers of people here who are going to other places, it seems like it would be evidence for that side to say, “see, we were right.” How do you think about this?
Brocker-Knapp: I think it’s a mixed bag. We’ve reunited so far 127 people through this program. When you look at the grand scheme of 12,000 people who are homeless, that’s a small amount of that population. However, the anecdotal evidence that we’re hearing of folks being from out of state really lends itself to that argument. I think it’s a mix. I think some people are coming from out of state. I think some people are from the region and some people are from Portland, but I think we always knew it was going to be a mixed population.
Miller: Is it also possible that somebody grew up, say, in Gresham or in Portland and has a friend who will take them in who is in Bismarck?
Brocker-Knapp: Yes. In that case, we really need to have a deep conversation with both parties about whether that’s just a place to lay their head or whether that’s actually somewhere where that’s a supportive environment, that’s part of their social network, that person really is part of their family. I think that that’s an important piece of the puzzle; it’s not someone who’s just wanting to visit their friend in a different state.
Miller: If the Portland-based outreach workers know that the person traveling from Portland is struggling with something like addiction or medical issues, behavioral health issues, is there any effort to make sure that those support services are available in their new community?
Brocker-Knapp: That’s part of the discussion. I just think about a case with someone who went home to their mother in Orlando, and really a conversation about, is there sufficient mental health supports, behavioral health supports for this person when they get there? And that was a deep part of the discussion with the outreach team.
Miller: When Willamette Week wrote about this a month or so ago, one of the points that was brought up there is that in other cities that are currently doing versions of this, there is more post-flight, post-train trip, post-bus trip follow up on the part of those cities – the originating cities – to keep checking in with family members, with the individuals, to make sure that the person who used to be in those cities is still doing well. Portland, my understanding is, doesn’t do that. Why not?
Brocker-Knapp: We do it in an informal way. We’re not case managers, we have very few outreach workers, but we do exchange contact information with both the person who’s going home and the person who’s receiving them. So our outreach team have their numbers, they have our numbers, and so we do make sure that they’ve had the warm hand off, that they got there safely, and then can have continued conversations. We don’t mandate it with our team just because of the workload of that.
Miller: But this is more a question of resources as opposed to philosophy. If you had many more resources, would you want to do that? Or do you believe that once people are out of Portland, there’s no good reason to keep checking in?
Brocker-Knapp: I think it really depends on the case and I think it would be part of our continuous improvement. We’re trying to learn as we develop this program, pivot quickly if we see that we need to do something differently. I think with many more outreach workers, we could look at whether that’s actually helpful. I think mandating it and a prescribed basis is not necessarily always necessary.
Miller: The mayor said just a few months ago that starting December 1, “I expect 14 people per week to be reunified, 700 people next year,” meaning in 2026. Are you on track right now to meet those numbers?
Brocker-Knapp: Yeah, every week it’s been a little different, so it changes week to week. We had a week where we had 18 people who were reunified, and then last week was 10 people. So yes, on average, we’re on track to meet that goal and we’re really excited about that. This is the fastest way to end homelessness and really give somebody that home and a supportive network, all in one.
Miller: How do you know that you’re ending homelessness as opposed to ending homelessness for individual people in Portland? How do you know if this is working a year from now, say, six months from now for the people who are no longer in Portland?
Brocker-Knapp: That’s part of that discussion with the family member or the friend, to really make sure that it’s not just a month-long supportive environment, but that it’s a long-term solution.
Miller: But those are the conversations that are happening before someone gets there. Do you know how they’re doing after they get there?
Brocker-Knapp: Those conversations continue, we just don’t prescribe a timeline. We’re not saying, check in with them three months later, check in with them six months later, but we’re still having deep conversations with those individuals. We just don’t prescribe a timeline. We know from certain cases, for example, our outreach team will stay in touch and then we can actually get a good gauge of, yes, by and large, folks are really staying in that housing.
Miller: So you can’t give us hard numbers, but you’re saying by and large, people who have gotten tickets out of Portland are still in homes wherever they are.
Brocker-Knapp: Yes.
Miller: Skyler Brocker-Knapp, thanks very much.
Brocker-Knapp: Thank you.
Miller: Skyler Brocker-Knapp is the head of Portland Solutions. She joined us to talk about Portland’s reunification program that matches up people who are experiencing homelessness in Portland with friends or family out of the city.
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