Cole Merkel

Background

About Cole Merkel

After spending nearly a decade working on the frontlines supporting people experiencing homelessness and extreme poverty, Cole helped develop and lead a coalition of service providers, business leaders, advocates and people on the front lines that created, campaigned for and got voter approval of the largest per capita investment in homeless services in the United States, the Metro Supportive Housing Services measure. For the next four years, Cole co-led and stewarded that same coalition, HereTogether, advocating for scaled implementation of the measure through storytelling, policy development, grassroots engagement and direct advocacy. Now, Cole's focus has turned directly to measure implementation and the needs of region's homeless service providers, leading a team in Metro Regional Government's Housing Department that is focused on providing technical assistance and training opportunities to scale and support provider capacity.