Multnomah County Homeless Count Starts, Hundreds Participating

PORTLAND, OR – In 2017, 70 people who were homeless died on the streets of Multnomah County. That year, a one night count found 4,177 people were found to be experiencing homelessness on the streets.

Multnomah County knows that while there is a certain power to numbers, they don't provide all the answers. It will give the county a sense of how old people are, whether they are veterans, their age and race, as well as whether or not they are survivors of domestic violence.

Starting Wednesday night, the county will be performing its "Point in Time" survey, something done every other year at the direction of federal housing agencies.

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The survey, which will take place over one week instead of the one night that it usually is, will answer some questions but not all.

"The count doesn't provide us with every answer," director of he Joint Office of Homeless Services, Marc Jolin, says. "It doesn't tell us why someone became homeless or what it will take to help any particular person end their homelessness.

"It's a critical tool for helping us understand the current level and nature of the need in our community. It's vital data that helps guide out community's investments in ending homelessness."

The county says that this year's count will be their most ambitious effort to date.

There will be more than 130 outreach workers from 27 different government agencies will spread out to campsites all over the county – from the Columbia Gorge in the east to Forest Park in the west and from the Columbia River in the north to Johnson Creek in the South.

At the same time, 136 public volunteers – a record high, the county says – will head out to 89 different day centers, meal sites, shelters, schools, libraries, and other places where there might be people experiencing homelessness.

Despite all the effort, it will not provide a complete picture of the situation.

Federal rules don't allow the inclusion of people who have lost their homes but have since been taken in – even on a temporary basis – by family and friends.

The county sites the example of 2017 when the Point in Time count found 4,177 people experiencing homelessness.

"That was one night," the county said in a statement. "Every day, people leave homelessness, even as high housing prices push different neighbors onto our streets."

In an effort to highlight the differences, the county points to two other reports – one by ECONorthwest last year found 56,000 households at risk of homelessness and a report from a Home for Everyone that found during the 2017-18 fiscal year, more than 30,000 had received services from them.

Photo via Colin Miner/Patch.