2019 Oregon Homeless Point in Time Counts Shows Wide Variance in Unsheltered Children Per 10,000.

Thanks to cooperation from multiple Continuum of Care organizations across Oregon I was able to combine their 2019 Point in Time data (submitted to HUD at the end of April) and put together the first statewide snapshot of the 2019 PIT count of the homeless population (not households), including local data.  

While my analysis of 2019 PIT counts includes data for total homelessness, my focus is on child homelessness and especially UNSHELTERED child homelessness. 

Outside of the Three Portland Metro CoC Counties The 2019 Unsheltered Child Homeless Rates Per 10,000 Children Was 33 Times the rate in the 3 County Portland metro area.

The graph pasted below shows, by CoC and various geographic groupings, the difference in the rate of child unsheltered homelessness per 10,000 children in the 2019 PIT count.  

Statewide the 2019 count showed that 19 out of 10,000 children were homeless and unsheltered.The graph however illustrates that the reported rate of unsheltered child homelessness is MUCH higher outside of the Portland metro area:  33 unsheltered homeless children per 10,000 children outside of the 3 county Portland metro area vs 1 unsheltered homeless child per 10,000 children INSIDE these 3 counties. 

The balance of the state CoC rate of unsheltered children per 1,000 is the highest of all CoC's at 43 per 1,000 children; this also increases the state rate per 1,000 and the rate outside of the 3 county Portland metro area. 

The challenge of uniform data collection from 28 counties in the Balance of State CoC seems likely to account for some of the significant variance in rates of reported unsheltered children less than 18. 

The table pasted below shows the population counts supporting the graph appearing earlier in this post. 

The 2019 PIT table shows that the count of unsheltered homeless children outside the 3 county Portland metro area was 1,604, while inside the 3 counties the total unsheltered homeless children count was only 37.  So, for every 1 unsheltered homeless child counted in the 3 county Portland metro area there were 43 unsheltered children counted outside the Portland metro area. 

My next post will present a more detailed look at Oregon and Oregon CoC CHANGES in the PIT count from 2017-2019, Including a focus on homeless children AND unsheltered homeless children.

GRAPH:

TABLE: 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.