Reversing Oregon’s homeless crisis: A road map for the new governor

Gov.-elect Tina Kotek (D-OR) recently declared her state’s homelessness crisis to be her top priority. Her success in combating it will depend on the data she relies upon to build her strategy and the data she relies upon to determine best practices.

First, she must establish how many people in the state are struggling with homelessness. Oregon’s 2022’s Point in Time count, a federally mandated physical count of people experiencing homelessness across the country, is not yet available. The 2020 pre-COVID-19 count documented 14,655 homeless Oregonians, but considering that its largest three counties collectively reported a 65% increase in homelessness over 2020, a similar surge is likely to be found in those forthcoming numbers.