More people are sleeping outside in Multnomah County on any given night in 2019 than the last decade, according to the latest homelessness count released Thursday.

About 20% more people were found living somewhere unfit for human habitation -- in places including tents, in cars and under bridges -- when the count was done on a single night this past winter compared to 2017, the last time the federally required count occurred.

The 2,037 people who were found sleeping outside is the highest the count has found and represents some of the area’s most entrenched issues -- they are disproportionately people of color, mentally ill or have a substance abuse problem.

They are also largely people who said they had never been homeless before.

While the overall number of homeless people counted dropped by nearly 4% to 4,015 -- down from 4,177 -- some numbers, such as the increase in people living on the street for the first time, indicate that the tide of extremely poor people losing their housing continues unabated.

The Point in Time count is conducted by the county every two years. It focuses on people who are living on the streets or in cars, transitional housing and shelters. The federal Housing and Urban Development agency doesn’t account for people who are doubled up or couch surfing, which would make the number much higher.

Volunteers and staff from the city, county and nonprofits canvass the county to find anyone who might fit the definition of homelessness to put together a census. However, it has limitations, including that it is done in the winter, when many people are most likely to find a warmer place to sleep and thus might not be easily found.

But officials use it as a snapshot of what Multnomah County’s streets might look like on any given day of the year.

The data is collected by Portland State University and analyzed by the Joint Office of Homeless Services. The full report was released Thursday.

Multnomah County and the city of Portland have made larger investments in homelessness services each year and have increased the number of people in shelters and permanent housing. In fact, there were about 50% more people receiving financial and staff support to get into housing and stay there this year over 2017.

That translates to 12,480 people who officials say could likely have been on the street if not for those investments.

But even with the now $70 million that goes to services for homeless people, the latest survey shows gaps in who is being reached.

In 2017, the count found more people living in shelters than out of them. This year’s significant reversal could be, in part, due to the fact that the team of people who canvassed the county in 2019 was about twice the size as 2017 and that organizations that focus on serving black, Latino and Native American people were enlisted.

People of color disproportionately experience homelessness on each Point in Time survey. That remains true this year -- and gets slightly worse. While people of color make up less than 30% of the county’s total population, nearly 40% of homeless people in 2019 are not white.

Native American people remain the most disproportionately homeless group in Multnomah County.

They also are the most likely to be chronically homeless, which is defined as experiencing homelessness for more than a year and having an addiction, mental health condition or physical disability that makes getting and staying in housing difficult.

The entire chronically homeless population grew in 2019, though. The county found 1,769 who fit the definition -- 37% higher than in 2017.

Native people often take the top spot in being disproportionately homeless, but the problem has become worse, said Paul Lumley, director of the Native American Youth and Family Center. Lumley, who is Yakama, said that his organization is seeing the most stark example of the problem in the high school the organization runs.

Between 40% to 50% of the students experience homelessness at a given time, Lumley said.

This is despite two housing projects underway to specifically serve Oregon’s tribal members and other programs.

“This tells us that the current housing system is not working,” Lumley said.

Black people in Multnomah County were also overrepresented in this year’s count -- even more than past years. Just over 7% of Multnomah County residents are black, but about 16% of the county’s homeless residents identify as black.

Both Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury pointed to the disparities for people of color as some of the data that concerned them most.

“The percentage of people who indicated they are African-American is a startling statistic,” Wheeler said. “There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”

Latinos were likely undercounted in 2019 due to an unwillingness by immigrants to participate. The number of homeless Latino people dropped in 2019 by 13% -- a 55-person difference -- but officials cautioned that the number might not be accurate.

Edith Molina from El Programa Hispano Catolico said that while her nonprofit attempted to better survey the Latino population, many people were afraid to report information to the government.

Another number stands out to officials as suspect: A 50% decline since 2017 in homeless families. This is despite Multnomah County ending its policy of providing shelter for every family that identifies as homeless and wants to be inside -- and closing its dedicated family shelter because of structural problems. Only 12 families total were found sleeping outside -- an 84% decrease.

Officials attribute some of that decrease to increased effort to place families into permanent housing, following the trouble at the family shelter. They also acknowledge that it is likely an undercount, considering more than 900 families are on the waitlist for emergency housing assistance.

Officials’ warnings not too interpret too much success from Point in Time numbers aligns with years of caution that few expect much to change until the competitive housing market cools.

Major West Coast cities that released their data earlier this year said the same thing -- there is still a long way to go, even if numbers drop.

Their data shows Portland falls in the middle of major West Coast cities dealing with homelessness crises. Seattle saw a drop in both the total homeless population -- 8% -- and the number of people without shelter -- 17%. It was the first decrease since 2012.

Los Angeles, consistently a city with some of the largest amount of homeless people, saw a 12% increase, even as voters approved a historic bond to build affordable housing.

Marc Jolin, director of the city-county Joint Office of Homeless Services, echoed elected officials that the report didn’t hold many surprises.

“As hard as it is to see the number of unsheltered people going up, the reality of people doing this work every day is we’re fighting an uphill battle,” Jolin said.

The city, county and Metro have committed to building 2,000 units of permanent supportive housing to try to make a dent in the hardest people to serve -- those with disabilities and addictions. Six hundred of those are in the works or already built, according to Jolin.

The 2019 count shows about a 10% increase in homeless people who report either a disability of some form. More than 70% of homeless people reported living with a physical disability, mental illness, substance use disorder, HIV or other disability.

Those services were the focus of many government and nonprofit leaders Thursday. Both Wheeler and Kafoury said that their budgets can’t accommodate the growing need for mental health and addiction services, in particular.

“Those folks need more than just keys to an apartment,” Kafoury said.

They said the current data underscores the need to create more resources to deal with the growing problem, which could take the form of a revenue generating mechanism on a future ballot.

“We don’t have the money for the services in our budget right now,” Kafoury said.

About 40% of homeless people surveyed said they had a mental health issue. Almost half of all homeless people surveyed said they used drugs of some kind.

Sean Hubert, chief housing and strategy officer for nonprofit Central City Concern, said that he would link those increases to other troubling data points, such as Oregon having some of the highest rates in the nation for untreated addiction issues and lowest reimbursement rates for addiction treatment.”

“It’s time to have a dialogue and evaluate our strategies going forward,” Hubert said.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com | 503-294-5923 | @MollyHarbarger

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