Oregon’s Homeless Crisis: Why Current Strategies are Failing - Part 1
Part 1 – Oregon’s 2023 Homeless Report Card Based on Five Key Metrics
Last year, the Tri-County area (Multnomah, Washington & Clackamas counties) spent a staggering $531 million on addressing homelessness—a 70% increase over the previous year.1 This translates to an astonishing $71,000 per homeless person living in the Portland metro area ($531 million ÷ 7,480 people). Yet, despite this massive investment, homelessness continues to spiral out of control. Oregon’s crisis demands answers, accountability, and bold new strategies.
How Does Oregon Compare to Other States?
The first question we must ask ourselves is this: “We’ve spent all this money on homelessness, so how are we performing compared to other states?”
Below is Oregon’s 2023 Homeless Report Card on five critical metrics—not from critics but from reputable organizations and federal data:
Oregon’s 2023 Homeless Report Card - 5 Key Indicators
3rd Largest Homeless population per 10,000 residents
1st Highest # of unsheltered families with children
4th Highest # of unaccompanied homeless youth
3rd Lowest Mental Health treatment
2nd Lowest Substance Abuse Treatment
These rankings are damning. Oregon has the third-largest homeless population per capita, the highest rate of unsheltered families with children, fourth highest in the number of unaccompanied youth and some of the worst access to mental health and substance abuse treatment in the nation.
Is Oregon Reducing Homelessness?
The second question we need to ask is: “Are we making progress in reducing homelessness?” Here are the sobering facts:
Homelessness in Oregon has increased every year since 2010.5
The 2015 Point in Time (PIT) Count recorded 13,176 people experiencing homelessness in Oregon. By 2023, that number had surged to 20,110, a 53% increase.6,7
In Portland, homelessness has risen even more dramatically, climbing 234% from 2015 to 2023 (from 1,887 to 6,297 individuals)
Oregon’s Letter Grade on Homelessness: F
Given Oregon’s abysmal performance on critical metrics and its failure to reduce homelessness, the state earns a failing grade. These results are not just disappointing—they are unacceptable.
As Oregonians, we cannot accept a system that pours money into homelessness without seeing tangible results. We need real change, not a continuation of the current failed policies.
Footnotes:
1 ‘Shocking’ amount spent on Portland metro homeless interventions, by Elise Haas, KOIN, June 19, 2024, Source: John Tapogna, ECOnorthwest
2 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2023-ahar-part-1.Pdf
3 2023 Mental Health America State Rankings
4 National Drug Helpline State Rankings
5 Homelessness in Oregon, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Oregon#:~:text=Oregon%20has%20seen%20an%20increase,13.1%25%20increase%202019%2D2020.
6 Homeless in Oregon, 2015 Point in Time Count https://digitalcollections.library.oregon.gov/nodes/view/175370
7 2023 Oregon Statewide Homelessness Estimates, Jacen Greene, Frankling Holcomb Spurbeck, Marisa Zapata, Portland State University, https://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=hrac_pub
