MWHITF: Managing Expectations

Revised: December 2018

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

[Originally posted under the title, "MWHITF, Awards, Agendas and Deliverables."

The Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments ended 2015 by giving Mayor Peterson an award for "Outstanding Leadership for Cooperative, Regional, Intergovernmental Initiatives."

Among Mayor Peterson's leadership accomplishments cited were her co-founding of the Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative [MWHI] and her previous role as Chair of the Governor's Meth Task Force.

The Mayor, Councilors, and Staff

The fact that the Initiative's governing body has not held its first meeting, much less accomplished anything, makes the Council's decision painfully reminiscent of the Nobel Committee's 2009 decision to award newly elected President B. Obama the Peace prize. 

Mayor Anna Peterson told the Statesman Journal last month that she wanted the MWHI  to "identify areas, projects or programs that aren't working as effectively as they need to be, stop any waste that is occurring, and redirect those funds and those activities."  But, in a recent Willamette Wake Up interview, Commissioner Carlson said that it was important to support the area's social services providers because "they're doing great work" and the task force was not "here to suggest that what's happening now isn't working." 

Janet Carlson

Carlson also told listeners that a Daily Show video "really explains a lot about Housing First", and "really lays out a lot of information that's very digestible to the average citizen."

Asked about Jane Doe's disappointment that no member of the homeless community had been appointed to the MWHI task force, Carlson responded that, except for the first meeting, the task force would be taking public comment, and Ms. Doe, who was living in her car, could "step forward" and ask to be put on the task force's list of technical advisers. 

Carlson seemed to suggest that the affordable housing crisis was the result of two-income families who used to own homes being forced by the recession to move into apartments and not being able to buy homes now, when they could afford them, because credit is so tight.  She believes the task force should look for ways to help such families move into homes again, thereby freeing up apartments. 

Although Carlson said she's interested in Housing First, it wasn't clear what she meant by that.  Her comment about the Daily Show video "really explaining a lot about Housing First", and her comment about the "5% or whatever" of homeless who "choose to be homeless", suggest she is using the term rather loosely.

Asked what she'd like to see coming out of the task force by the end of the year, Carlson said she'd like to have some "very solid recommendations" that would put some "meat on the bones" of the 10-Year Plan.  According to the Charter, the stated purpose of the task force is to "identify and launch proven strategies."