PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Tri-county officials announced that at least 7,480 people across the Portland metro areas were experiencing homelessness in late January, according to data released Wednesday.
Numbers from the 2023 Point In Time Count show there are nearly 1,000 more people experiencing homelessness than in 2022. However, according to the data, the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in 2023 dropped 17% from last year — chronic homelessness means that those surveyed reported a long spell of homelessness and a disabling condition.
“It really means that we all have to work together on this and kind of not think so much about the borders being firm because they’re not, they’re actually quite fluid and we have to work together,” said Denis Theriault, Multnomah Co. Deputy Communications Director.
The Point in Time Count, which was conducted Jan. 25-31, is a federally required tally and provides a snapshot of how many people are homeless on a given night in each community.
In this year’s count in Multnomah County, 6,297 people were considered homeless — a 21% increase from last year — with 3,944 of them unsheltered, 1,821 in shelter and 532 in transitional housing.
In Washington County, 773 people were counted as homeless — a 4.5% decrease from last year — with 230 unsheltered, 464 in shelter and 79 in transitional housing.
And in Clackamas County, 410 people were recorded as homeless — a 31% decrease from 2022 — 360 were not in a shelter, 182 were in a shelter and 50 were in transitional housing. County leaders credit the voter-approved metro supportive housing services measure for funding resources like shelters and affordable housing.
“They’ve allowed us to build out the homeless services continuum of care that didn’t exist in Clackamas County before the metro measure was available,” said Adam Brown, Clackamas Co. Deputy Director of Health, Housing and Human Services.
Officials say due to expanded shelter options and improved data collection, hundreds of people were added to the count that would have been missed in the past — the 2023 count set a new record by counting nearly 400 more people than the previous record-high count.
“The number of people on these lists has grown as outreach and other engagement services have expanded, reaching more people who otherwise would not be counted,” officials said. “Every Point in Time Count is fundamentally an undercount — though the one-night snapshots that emerge from the Counts serve as a critical tool for understanding baseline trends among people experiencing homelessness … “It’s also not possible to definitively find, survey and count every person experiencing homelessness.”
Following shelter expansion efforts during the pandemic, the number of people counted in Multnomah County shelters set a new record, according to officials.
A more detailed report will be released later this year.