HOMELESSNESS

Problem

Oregon has one of the worst homelessness crises in the country — and it keeps growing despite record spending.

What the numbers show

• 22,875 people experiencing homelessness in 2024

• 48 per 10,000 residents, more than double the national rate

• 60–65% unsheltered (tents, cars, outdoors), vs ~40% nationally

• Homelessness increased 20% since 2015, while many states saw declines.

Drivers we already know

• Rents are rising faster than wages.

• 110,000+ affordable units are missing statewide

• Eviction and medical or debt-triggered displacement

• No safety net during job loss, illness, or crisis

• Lack of treatment access for mental health + addiction

• Discharge pipelines:

  • Prisons

  • Foster care

  • Hospitals

  • Treatment centers

Disparities are stark

• Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander: 277 per 10,000

• American Indian & Alaska Native: 152 per 10,000

• Black Oregonians: 2x the white rate

Where Oregon gets it wrong

• Too little permanent housing

• Fragmented, slow systems

• Emergency response that manages misery instead of solving the cause

• Police filling roles meant for housing providers, caseworkers, and clinicians

Homelessness is not mysterious — it is the predictable result of a system that refuses to build, house, or treat at scale.

Solutions

1. Housing First at scale

• Large federal block grants for thousands of supportive housing units

• Expand voucher eligibility so that all eligible individuals and families receive vouchers, not just lottery selectees.

• Preserve existing affordable housing and prevent demolition and predatory buyouts.

• Track success by the number of people moving into permanent housing, not by shelter occupancy.

Impact: More people exit homelessness than enter, leading to a steady reduction in overall homelessness rates over time.

2. Prevent homelessness before it begins

• Emergency rental assistance that stops eviction filings

• Free legal aid for tenants

• Cash assistance for families facing short-term crises

• Tie income supports current local rent and wage levels.

Impact: Eviction rates drop sharply; children maintain school attendance; shelter capacity rises, enabling more people to access needed resources.

3. Treat root causes with care — not jail beds

• Mobile mental health + addiction teams

• Sobering, respite, and stabilization centers outside ERs

• Guaranteed housing upon discharge from:

  • Jail/prison

  • Foster care

  • Hospitals

  • Rehab

Impact: Upon discharge from public systems, all individuals transition directly into stable housing instead of living unsheltered.

4. Stop criminalizing poverty

• Prohibit use of federal homelessness funds for sweeps or forced displacements.

• Fund and expand unarmed street response teams such as CAHOOTS and Portland Street Response.

• Provide sanitation, water, and trash services as basic public health services.

• Shift dollars from police response to housing placement

Impact: People experiencing homelessness achieve stability more quickly, cities save on emergency costs, and traumatic encounters decrease for both individuals and communities.

5. Close racial gaps on purpose

• Federal dollars contingent on reducing racial homelessness disparities

• Invest in culturally specific and tribal-led housing and support programs.

• Support Native nations in building and owning their own housing and service systems.

• Track outcomes by race, ethnicity, and community — and enforce accountability

Impact: Communities with higher homelessness rates receive proportionate support and tracked benefits, ensuring interventions are distributed based on actual need rather than averages.

6. Include rural and small-town Oregon

• Fund housing, treatment, and transit hubs outside cities

• Construct long-term rural shelters and supportive housing for underserved communities.

• Expand telehealth, mobile care, and develop farmworker housing across rural Oregon.

Impact: Homelessness rates fall across all regions, ensuring rural and small-town areas experience the same improvements as urban centers.

Bottom Line

Homelessness results from policy choices—not personal failure.

We can end mass homelessness by:

• Building deeply affordable and supportive housing

• Preventing eviction and crisis displacement

• Treating addiction and mental illness with dignity

• Ending criminalization

• Closing racial disparities with intention

• Ensuring rural and tribal communities are never an afterthought.

Oregon already spends enough on homelessness — it just spends it in the wrong places.

Redirect spending from temporary fixes to affordable housing, care, and prevention. Homelessness becomes solvable—not permanent.