Oregon Initial Homeless Data Analysis: Focus on Unsheltered.

HUD has issued the third annual homeless assessment report to the Congress HERE. The nationwide report touts a drop in the number of chronic homeless persons.

As part of that release HUD has made available 2007 local and state level homeless population and inventory counts HERE.

My first look at that data focuses on changes in Oregon statewide totals for homeless populations and sub populations from 2005-2007, with particular focus on statewide changes in UNSHELTERED counts.

The PDF document HERE contains my analysis and the Oregon statewide household, population, and sub population data for 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Some key points about 05-07 changes for Oregon's UNSHELTERED homeless:

1. HOUSEHOLDS: Family households declined by 29%, but individual (single person) households grew by 17%.
2. PERSONS: Persons in families declined by 13%, but persons in individual (single person) households grew by 30%
3. PERSONS IN SUB POPULATIONS: INCREASES-Severely Mentally Ill , Veterans, Domestic Violence and Unaccompanied Youth; DECREASES-Chronically Homeless, Chronic Substance Abuse, and HIV/Aids.
   

I encourage others to further examine HUD homeless data to discover other trends (and possible data problems and issues).