'Culturally Specific Corrections Counselors,' a 'Construction Diversity and Equity Fund,' and Race-Based Shelter Referrals: Portland Proposes Budget Larded With Racially Discriminatory Programs

Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes the majority of Portland, plans to spend nearly $300 million on explicitly race-conscious programs over the next year, documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show, including a program that aims to house minority veterans "at rates equal to or greater than their white peers."

The documents, which include the county's proposed FY2027 budget as well as internal "equity" metrics, illustrate the scale of taxpayer-funded race discrimination in the greater Portland area, where "BIPOC" residents receive priority access to counseling, housing assistance, and rent relief.

Nearly $50 million has been budgeted for programs that appear to exclude white people entirely, according to a Free Beacon analysis. An additional $248 million will go to programs that use racial preferences or are geared toward race-conscious outcomes, such as the county's street outreach program, which indicates that "BIPOC" homeless people should be "referred to shelter at rates as high or higher than non-Hispanic whites."

The budget also includes $1.5 million for a housing program that is "culturally specific to the Black/African American community"; $1.75 million for a program that connects black and Hispanic parolees with "culturally specific Corrections Counselors";  $2 million for a "Construction Diversity and Equity Fund" that "dismantles systemic barriers by redistributing resources to women and people of color"; and $18.4 million for "supportive housing for Native American, Black/African American, Latinx, Somali, and immigrant and Refugee populations."

Another program, targeted at minority veterans in need of housing, will receive nearly $1 million if Multnomah's Board of County Commissioners votes to approve the budget on June 4.

"Data shows that white veterans may be housed (and retain housing) at rates higher than their Black, Indigenous, and other Peer [sic] of Color, due to the majority of veterans being white," the budget reads. "So a goal of this program is for Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color veterans to be housed at rates equal to or greater than their white peers."

Multnomah County is already facing a lawsuit from a disabled woman who was denied rent relief thanks to her low score on the county's screening tool, which awards more points for requesting "culturally specific services" than for "having a disability." The budget reveals a much wider pattern of race discrimination than has been previously reported, and shows how concepts like "cultural responsiveness"—a term used over 100 times in the proposed budget—can be a Trojan horse for racial preferences.

"Domestic and sexual violence impacts communities differently, and survivors from underserved groups often face compounded barriers rooted in racism and systemic inequities," the description for one domestic violence program reads. "Culturally specific services are essential–not optional–to ensure equitable access to safety, healing, and long-term stability for all survivors."

Dan Morenoff, the director of the American Civil Rights Project, said that the funding for such programs "sounds like a straightforward Title VI violation."

"Oregon isn't the first place that a government has argued that different races are so culturally different that they're best served separately," Morenoff told the Free Beacon. "That was literally the old argument South Africa made for apartheid."

Chaired by Vega Pederson, who in December 2025 said that Multnomah would use "every tool at our disposal" to resist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the left-leaning board of commissioners is all but certain to rubber-stamp the budget in two weeks' time. Pederson did not respond to a request for comment.

A majority of the race-based spending—more than $200 million—flows through the county's Homeless Services Department, which maintains detailed "equity" targets for all its programs. At least 28 programs aim to ensure that each of the five "BIPOC participant groups"—black, Asian, Hispanic, American Indian, and Pacific Islander—access services "at a rate equal to or greater than their share of the total homeless population," according to data obtained by the Free Beacon. That number doesn't include the street outreach program, which tracks how many "BIPOC" individuals are referred to shelters relative to whites, and whose budget is set to double this year.

The budget will also dole out $9.5 million on the health department director's office, which measures the "# of culturally specific and multicultural community partners and events that promote health equity," and $1.7 million on the Office of Sustainability, which attributes "climate destabilization" to the "historical and ongoing harms of racism and colonialism."

"To redress these harms, the Office leads with race in our decision-making, identifying it as the primary driver of systemic inequity," the office wrote in its application for funds.

Another program, which will receive $8.8 million for family shelters, boasted in its application that "[f]amilies from communities of color are served at a higher rate compared to their representation among homeless families."

Even the more subjective benchmarks have a race-conscious slant. In a section on "key performance indicators," the Homeless Services Department wrote that "100% of historically marginalized demographic cohorts of HSD employees report a 'Sense of Belonging' score that meets or exceeds the organizational average"—implying that non-marginalized employees had a below-average score.

The Free Beacon's analysis does not include programs that mention race without explicitly prioritizing it, such as a "majority Black, Indigenous and People of Color" youth commission. Nor does it include racially targeted "outreach," such as a library that provides "culturally relevant outreach to Black and Somali Library users."

A full list of the programs with racial criteria can be viewed here.