Multnomah County, Oregon, which is home to Portland, is using a points-based screening system that awards extra priority for housing assistance based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

The policy, part of the county’s Multnomah Services and Screening Tool (MSST) rolled out in 2024, is under fire for not using traditional measures of need to determine who gets assistance, such as length of homelessness, domestic violence survival, and having young children.

Multnomah County uses the MSST through its Coordinated Access process to prioritize who gets access to its limited housing resources.

The tool prioritizes groups described as “over-represented” in the local homeless population, including non-white households and “LGBTQIA2S+” individuals.

WATCH:

HOLY SMOKES. An Oregon County is now moving to prioritize housing assistance to “BIPOC households” and “LGBTQIA2S+” homeless people

“A transgender immigrant who spoke English as a second language would plausibly receive more points than a woman with a 6-year-old child who’d… pic.twitter.com/WwDrQeyX1X

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 20, 2026

According to a report from the Washington Free Beacon, which obtained the scoring rubric via public records request, up to five points can be awarded to non-white, non-straight applicants who speak English as a second language. This exceeds the four points given for being a domestic violence survivor with a six-year-old child who has been homeless for over a year.

Additional points include one for “interest in LGBTQ services” and two for “interest in culturally specific services,” a category tied to race-based programs.

The county’s own Priority Housing Pool FAQ states the system is “designed to prioritize … BIPOC households, LGBTQIA2S+, [and] people with disabilities.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon confirmed the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division Housing Section is already investigating the policy.

“We will sue if they don’t stop it. All Americans are entitled to equal protection of the laws,” Dhillon wrote in a post to X on Saturday.

Oh really. . @CivilRights Housing Section is already investigating this. We will sue if they don’t stop it. All Americans are entitled to equal protection of the laws. https://t.co/EyWbJT0oJT

— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) June 20, 2026

Race and identity-based scoring violates the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Protection Clause by treating citizens differently based on immutable characteristics rather than uniform need.

Multnomah County officials have described the approach as an effort to address “systemic” disparities and overrepresentation of certain groups in homelessness statistics. They claim that all programs remain open to everyone, regardless of race or identity, and comply with anti-discrimination laws.

However, awarding of points tied to race, ethnicity, and sexual preferences, combined with dedicated “culturally specific” housing projects reserved or prioritized for non-white applicants, makes it pretty obvious that there is a two-tiered system.

Multnomah County faces one of the nation’s worst homelessness crises, with high per-capita rates and rising deaths. The majority of homeless individuals in the county are white, according to available data.

The post Oregon County Prioritizing Housing Aid for Non-White and ‘LGBTQIA2S+’ Homeless Over Struggling Families, DOJ Vows Lawsuit if They Don’t Stop appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.