New County Details from 3 County Portland 2022 HUD PIT Homeless Data: Multnomah Has Disproportionate Share of Unsheltered Homeless, Their Reported Child Unsheltered Count Raises Questions.

I recently used public records requests to obtain more county level data from the 2022 PIT homeless count.  The Portland metro CoC's had released 3 county totals in early May with a plan to release their full report, with county level data, this summer. 

I have provided a summary table pasted below that includes the data I used for the following observations:

My Observations

Unsheltered Child Homeless Population Counts Shot Up in Multnomah, Inclusion of "Likely experiencing" May Point to Why?

The Multnomah county led CoC, which had only 6 unsheltered children under 18 in the 2019 PIT count reported 287 unsheltered children in 2022. That's 47 TIMES the count in 2019.

I asked and the explanation I got was that the 2022 count was based on reported data from households, and did not include a physical count of unsheltered children. I don't really understand what that means, and it raises questions for me about consistency and the quality of the data being reported. 

This quote from a 2022 PIT press release from the Joint Office of Housing Services may offer some insight into why the unsheltered homeless numbers increased so significantly 

"Using data from Multnomah County’s three by-name “Coordinated Entry” services access lists, the Joint Office was able to identify hundreds of additional people who were likely experiencing [emphasis added] unsheltered homelessness on the night of the Count." 

The unsheltered child homeless population DECREASED in Clackamas and Washington county by 25, but increased in Multnomah  county.

Huge Differences in Unsheltered Homeless Children Rates Per 100, 000 Children

Combined Clackamas and Washington counties reported only 6 unsheltered homeless children. PSU reports 212,813 children under 18 in 2021 in these counties, so that is 2.7 unsheltered homeless children per 100,00 children. 

In contrast the rate in Multnomah county, with 147,200 children, was 195 unsheltered homeless children per 100,000 children

The data reported showed that Multnomah had 98% of the unsheltered unsheltered child homeless population in the 3 counties. (287/293)

Unsheltered Chronic Homeless: 

Only 66 of 827 person increase was in Clackamas and Washington counties. 

Multnomah had 88% of the unsheltered chronic homeless population in the 3 counties. (2,113/2,406)

TOTAL Unsheltered Homeless Population 

There was a 1.119 three county increase but only 99 of that increase was in Clackamas and Washington counties

Multnomah had 85% of the unsheltered homeless population in the 3 counties. (3,057/3,611)

Multnomah County Share of Metro SHS Funding Distribution Is Substantially Less than Its Share of 3 County Metro Homeless Population. 

The graphic shows the difference between Multnomah county share of SHS funds (45.3%) and their much larger share of the 2022 PIT counts of the unsheltered homeless population and sub populations. 

Upcoming Post Will Show Change in Population Adjusted RATES of Unsheltered Homeless:

To provide more perspective my next post will combine PIT count data with population data to show how the RATES of unsheltered homelessness (as a percentage of the population) changed from 2019 to 2022. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.