County, city announce new homeless services director

Published 11:30 am Wednesday, April 5, 2023

A longtime Kaiser Permanente executive will lead the Joint Office of Homeless Services, Portland and Multnomah County officials announced Wednesday, April 5.

Dan Field, Kaiser Permanente’s executive director of Community Health & External Affairs, will lead the city-county partnership effective April 28. His hiring must be approved formally by the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners first.

“He has the drive, he has the connections, he has the ability to work with us and collaborate with us,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said of Field. “But what it really came down to was personal passion, personal commitment to seeing this humanitarian crisis resolved.”

At a press conference announcing his hire, local leaders involved in the hiring process emphasized Field’s experience in negotiating and collaborating with separate groups — a skill crucial for the Joint Office of Homeless Services, which is overseen and funded by both the county and city, works with a long list of local homeless service providers, and seeks state and federal funding.

Field worked at Kaiser for nearly two decades, during which time he helped found HealthShare of Oregon, the coordinated care organization for Medicaid members in the Metro area. Field also negotiated a major funding package to get health insurance for Oregon kids, according to the county press release announcing his hire.

Earlier in the pandemic, Field was part of the team that coordinated health systems and public health agencies to launch the COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Oregon Convention Center.

He has also been involved in projects merging healthcare and housing services, like the Blackburn Center, which opened in 2019. In 2020, he was involved in starting the Metro 300 initiative, which used $5.1 million from Kaiser to house 300 homeless seniors.

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said Field is “a leader to meet this moment, one who understands the complexities and has the commitment to build coalition and relationship building that is needed to help us bring added urgency and accountability to the joint office’s work and investments.”

Field said he will “look for ways to dissolve barriers and strengthen collaboration.” Some of his first conversations will be with executives with HealthShare, which receives funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment, to find ways to integrate homeless services work and health care work. “We’re gonna do that across the board, and look for ways to dissolve barriers and strengthen collaboration,” Field said.

Field will make $220,000, plus benefits, as JOHS director.

JOHS Deputy Director Joshua Bates has led the department as interim director since November 2022. He will stay on as deputy director once Field joins the office.

The office hasn’t had a permanent director for more than a year. Marc Jolin led the office from when it was formed in 2016 through March 2022. Shannon Singleton was named interim and stayed in that role for eight months before stepping down.