by Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
October 3, 2024
Buoyed by Lane County, Oregon is on track to meet Gov. Tina Kotek’s January goal of moving 650 formerly homeless people into permanent housing before the state’s latest homelessness emergency declaration expires in January.
But data compiled by Oregon Housing and Community Services show the state is far behind on Kotek’s second goal of preventing 11,856 Oregon households living on the brink from slipping into homelessness. Just 2,853 households have been kept in their homes through aid such as rent or utility assistance.
“This is not a victory lap,” Kotek said during a press conference Thursday. “This is not a mission accomplished moment. This is a progress report.”
Oregon’s homelessness crisis has been a top point of concern for Kotek and legislative leaders. More than 20,000 Oregonians were homeless on a single night in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest point in time count, and most of them sleep outside or in cars.
Lawmakers allocated $1.2 billion toward the crisis in 2023 and another $112 million in 2024. With that money, Kotek’s office estimates that by the end of the two-year budget cycle in 2025, the state will have maintained 2,400 shelter beds, added 1,700 new beds, rehoused 2,700 households, prevented 24,000 people from becoming homeless and built 2,800 affordable homes.
By January, state officials will also learn whether their efforts in 2023 outpaced growing homelessness. Each January, communities throughout the country conduct a point in time count to determine how many people are homeless on a single night, and it takes about a year for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to compile and release statewide data.
Results were worse in many parts of the state. Central Oregon’s Homelessness Leadership Coalition reported a 9% increase in homelessness since 2023, while the Community Services Consortium that serves Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties reported that its counted homeless population more than doubled since 2023. At least 1,437 people were homeless in the tri-county region in January 2024.
“To illustrate the gravity of that number, it is the same as the total population of Depoe Bay,” the consortium’s website says.
Some counties saw progress. Lane County, for instance, reported that more of its homeless population was sheltered in 2024 than in 2023 – though two-thirds of its more than 3,000 homeless residents were still living outside or in nontraditional shelters like safe parking sites.
Lane County is also responsible for the majority of the progress toward rehousing. Of the 529 formerly homeless people who are now living in permanent homes according to the state housing agency, 345 were in Lane County. Marion and Polk counties were next, with 84 people rehoused, followed by Multnomah County with 72.
“I praise Lane County for what they’re doing,” Kotek said. “I think they’ve been very strategic about how they’re working to solve problems there.”
Updated at 1:45 p.m. with additional comments.
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