Takatuf

English

Solutions

Homelessness is likely trending down nationally Not in Oregon

5 days ago

Homelessness could be on the decline nationally for the first time in eight years according to data from local homelessness counts gathered by The New York Times and reviewed by an outside expert If thats right then Oregons recorded 35 growth in homelessness since 2023 stands in stark contrast to the national trend Typically the US Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes a report each December documenting all of the local counts and identifying national trends and outliers That has not happened yet for the 2025 count In the absence of that report the Times gathered published data from twothirds of the locales responsible for completing the counts and found that homelessness declined by 7 in those geographical regions between 2024 and 2025 Oregon numbers were included in the Times sample according to the reporter Dennis P Culhane an expert on homelessness data at the University of Pennsylvania who reviewed the Times data told the newspaper that while the sample was large enough to indicate a national decline he expected a decline of closer to 3 to 5 when data from all areas were included Oregons 2025 count recorded 27119 people who were homeless in the state on the single night in January that was the focus of the count according to a report released two weeks ago by Portland State University The higher total in 2025 was due to increased evictions rising rents and improvement in data collection methods according to the report The state has also built thousands of new shelters which allowed for more people to be easily identified as homeless While Oregon did not conduct a complete count in 2024 available data makes clear that homelessness in Oregon did rise between 2024 and 2025 according to Marisa Zapata director of the Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative at Portland State University which is responsible for the metro area count and the statewide report The pointintime counts that produce these numbers have long been a requirement for receiving the federal homeless services funding communities have historically relied upon that is now under threat from the Trump administration The counts are conducted in January of each year and are known to be more of a solid estimate than a firm count It can generally be assumed that any given regions count is lower than the actual number of people who are homeless in that area according to experts Its also true that while all counts have to follow some set guidelines individual locales have the ability to set some of their own parameters Multnomah County for example now includes data based on its more accurate bynamelist in the count which notably increases its total Still the annual counts are the closest thing to an applestoapples comparison of homelessness rates across the country that are publicly available Oregon is not the only state that saw a continued rise in homelessness in the past year Kentucky and Utah also documented increases as did Philadelphia and San Antonio Texas according to The New York Times report The newspaper did not publish its full dataset Washington also saw a rise in homelessness in 2025 while California saw a 45 decline according to data published by the Washington State Department of Commerce and a Californiabased nonprofit called the Hub for Urban Initiatives respectively Chicago Denver and Washington DC all saw declines in their homelessness counts between 2024 and 2025 as did Maine Minnesota and Florida according to the Times Representatives from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development did not immediately answer questions from The OregonianOregonLive about the likely timing of a 2025 national report

Lillian Mongeau Hughes Lillian Mongeau Hughes | The Oregonian/oregon Live

Relevance news