Should Portland appoint Anna Allen and Laura Suarez to the Steering and Oversight Committee for the Homelessness Response System Intergovernmental Agreement?

TO THE COUNCIL:I, Keith Wilson, Mayor of the City of Portland request Portland City Council's confirmation of the following appointees to the Steering and Oversight Committee (SOC) meetings for the Homelessness Response System (HRS) for a one-year term, which will commence upon Council confirmation:Appointee Anna AllenAnna Allen (She/Her) has been nominated to serve as the SOC’s Supportive Housing Services (SHS) taxpayer representative. She completed an interest application, participated in a series of interviews with both City and County staff and is recommended to the Board for appointment. Ms. Anna Allen, a resident of Troutdale, is the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s (CRITFC) first regional government affairs director. Anna is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and brings more than a decade of experience working collaboratively across tribal governments, local public agencies, and community-based organizations to create equitable pathways for community members to help shape programs, policy decisions, and funding priorities. For many of her young years, her family was forced to become adept in navigating government funded social services, correctional facilities, and shelter systems. Statement of Interest“As a Native American woman from the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, I am no stranger to the harmful impacts of systemic racism and government funded houseless service systems. The barriers that come with systems not built to benefit communities like my own have forced me to become adept in navigating everyday microaggressions, houselessness as a minor, correctional facilities, shelter system navigation, and living on the receiving end of social services for much of my youth. This intersectional lived experience combined with my professional background in policy and program development and implementation that brings me to apply to serve on the HRS Steering Committee.”Appointee Laura SuarezLaura Suarez (She/Her) has been nominated to serve as the SOC’s behavioral health expert. She completed an interest application, participated in a series of interviews with both City and County staff and is recommended to the Board for appointment. Ms. Suarez is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, licensed in both Oregon and Washington with a Drug and Alcohol Certification II. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Portland State University. She has focused her career on intensive community-based case management and care coordination working with people with chronic and complex medical and psychosocial needs. Currently, Ms. Suarez is the manager for the Social Work Department, Division of Care Management at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU). In addition to her role as Social Work Department Manager, she serves as the Program Manager for OHSU Transitional Care Programs which provides the hospital with support and navigation to houseless and housing insecure patients.Statement of Interest“I support the management, coordination, and collaboration of complex patient discharges through Care Management at OHSU. My team works very closely with other hospital systems, post-acute care settings such as RCP, CCOs, shelter systems to provide supportive discharges for our houseless and housing insecure patients. I would love to have a seat at the table to speak to this work from my own professional experience and from the perspective of a hospital social worker.”