PORTLAND, Ore. — Multnomah County's Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) saw sharp increases both in the number of homeless people successfully re-housed and the number of people who entered shelter over the past year, according to a new report from the office.
The office, which is co-funded by the city of Portland, reported that its staff and contracted agencies helped almost 5,500 people move into homes during the 2023-24 fiscal year, a 28% increase over the year before and the largest annual increase since the office launched in 2016.
The office also saw 7,900 people newly enter shelter, a 35% increase over the year before. The total number of people who used a shelter bed for at least one night, including people who had used them in prior years, rose 32% to 9,101.
The increases were primarily driven by "a surge in people newly served by the Supportive Housing Services Measure," according to a news release from the office, which stated that more than 42% of people who left homelessness over the past year received support from the measure.
"These outcomes show what we all know to be true: When we work together, we can create some positive results. These outcomes would not be possible without the providers and front-line staff who have worked tirelessly every day, with deep commitment, to make this progress possible," JOHS Director Dan Field said in a statement. "These results also strengthen my belief that we are making a difference in our community, right now. While we still have a ways to go before ending our homelessness crisis, thousands of people who were homeless are now in stable homes with the services they need to stay there."
JOHS also announced that it spent 100% of its portion of the supportive housing measure's revenue for the fiscal year, after failing to meet its spending targets in the prior two years.
The office has struggled in past years, with the city of Portland at times seriously considering whether to withdraw financial support. JOHS also fared poorly in an audit released last year, in which Multnomah County Auditor Jennifer McGuirk faulted the office for disorganization, poor communication and struggles with finishing contracts and paying providers.
But the office got better news from a separate auditor report earlier this year that found JOHS had improved its methodology for counting housing placements and was producing more accurate data — a report that the office said helps validate the gains shown in Thursday's results.
At the same time, a city of Portland audit of JOHS noted that shelter capacity remains woefully inadequate, and that officials have deprioritized making shelter easier to access because of the capacity restrictions. The report added that JOHS lacked sufficient data, and "did not have a systematic process" for evaluating the data it did have "to identify the unmet need for shelter, and was not able to right-size shelter supply to meet the demand."