Social Worker, Housing Advocate Sworn In Early to Multnomah County Board

Shortly after winning the seat as Multnomah County Commissioner for District 2 less than a month ago, Singleton said she received a call from outgoing Commissioner Jesse Beason, her predecessor: Because she was filling a vacancy, she would actually take office early, on Dec. 2.

“It’s been a whirlwind wrapping up a career and staffing a new office in the matter of a couple of weeks,” Singleton said after she was sworn in on Monday. “I’m taking a seat here with four incredibly talented women, who are dedicated to serving the place they love and they call home, and who have welcomed me so warmly. If you have to hustle a bit to take a seat like that, you probably should.”

Singleton beat out hotelier Jessie Burke, former mayor Sam Adams, minister Carlos Richard and tech professional Nick Hara to secure the seat, which represents North and parts of Northeast Portland. Singleton described her campaign as “just a really beautiful, community-led grassroots campaign that took a lot of hands.”

In welcoming her to the board, county officials noted the “human-centered work” that had led to her success achieving public office.

Singleton grew up in Philadelphia and moved to Portland with her husband, Titus, in 2007. After completing her master’s degree at Portland State, she worked for the Salvation Army SAFES shelter, an emergency facility for women in crisis. She then served at the Portland Housing Bureau and led JOIN, a Portland nonprofit that helps transition homeless individuals into permanent housing.

“After a couple of decades of working in housing and human services in the Portland area, I really got tired of hearing politicians give reasons why they wouldn’t do something right,” Singleton said. “And I decided instead of being mad at them, I would join them. And so I reached out to a friend and asked about what it’s like to work in a political office. I had been the executive director of JOIN, where if folks know anything about homelessness, everything is political around homelessness. So I was around politics, but never on the inside.”

Singleton described the challenges of bringing her on-the-ground experience in housing advocacy to the governor’s office, where she served as Kate Brown’s housing advisor, then moved to the position of director of equity and racial justice – all at one of the nation’s most difficult moments in recent memory.

“I can tell you it was very different on the inside,” Singleton said. “We were working through the pandemic, we were working through wildfires, we were working through Donald Trump, we were mourning George Floyd and trying to find reason in this world. It was hard, but it taught me a lot.

"It taught me that if you want to change the world, you have to start at home.”

Upon running for the board of commissioners, Singleton secured endorsements from incoming city councilors, including Loretta Smith and Candace Avalos, as well as from Oregon state Senate President Kayse Jama, AFSCME and others.

Supporters and former colleagues are quick to point out Singleton’s tireless work ethic.

“This woman is more than a social worker,” Perlia Bell, an outreach specialist at JOIN whom Singleton hired at the SAFES Shelter more than a decade ago, said. “This woman is a leader, this woman will implement policies and procedures and make sure they’re done the correct way. She cares about our community – not only the homeless, not only the people (in the) middle class, Shannon Singleton cares about everything and everybody.”

Singleton told The Skanner her own experience of homelessness, as well as nearly 30 years of being a Black woman on the front lines of social work, ignited her decision to run for public office. It was a calling instilled in her by the women in her family, she said.

“The matriarchs in my family inspired me: My grandmother and great aunt who adopted young men displaced when mental health was de-institutionalized and thousands of people faced homelessness because the investments never came for the housing and community services needed for those who were forced out of those institutions; my mother who always made space for a family member or friend to stay at our house so they could ‘get back on their feet’ while she worked two jobs to make ends meet; my other grandmother who walked picket lines to ensure that she was able to be safe and well compensated and have benefits to care for her seven children when she was a member of IBEW.”

She grew up admiring a cohort of women community leaders as well, she said: “The women who started the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, which eventually became the Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign, demanding that people are able to meet their basic human rights and needs.”