New county dashboard shows homeless totals
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Multnomah County has rolled out a new tool to track homelessness that provides more accurate data and more frequent updates than were available previously.
Why it matters: The dashboard, unveiled Wednesday, is a collection of the "most comprehensive homelessness data" in the county's history, officials said, and will help elected officials and the public better understand the crisis.
- The county said it has improved the consistency of its outreach programs to contact people experiencing homelessness directly and is using data from a wider variety of service providers to get a more accurate count of the homeless population.
Driving the news: The dashboard showed that nearly 15,000 people were experiencing homelessness — sheltered, unsheltered or unknown — in Multnomah County in February.
- That's nearly 3,000 more people than the last count, from January of last year.
- The county attributed the spike to a lack of affordable housing, evictions and better data collection.
- The increase is due, in part, to the fact that "we are actually reaching more people than ever before — and making sure they are captured in our data," Anna Plumb, deputy director of the Homeless Services Department, said in a written statement.
What they're saying: Andrew Mendenhall, president and CEO of Central City Concern, acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead.
- "Our region has a new baseline from which to anchor strategy and performance," he said in a written statement. "We are saddened, but not surprised by this data."
By the numbers: Of the 14,864 people experiencing homelessness in February, nearly 6,800 were unsheltered, 4,860 were sheltered, and 3,208 were unknown, per the dashboard.
- The dashboard also showed there were more people entering homelessness (1,384) than leaving it (881).
The bottom line: In a press release, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega said that the data "is a major milestone that provides increased transparency and accountability" and "makes clear that our work is more important and necessary than ever."