Clarification appended

During the January stretch of below-freezing temperatures and historically high snowfall, Multnomah County fielded 16,179 calls to the 211 help line, many of which were homeless people seeking shelter.

About 13,000 shelter beds were occupied over the course of the month.

Residents reached out 8,080 times to learn where to donate food and gear, according to a Multnomah County report.

People housed in the county's jails volunteered to launder 200 blankets a day to be used in shelters.

At the same time, 144 people visited hospitals due to hypothermia -- about three times more than the year before. Thirty-eight of those people were homeless, another three-fold increase over last year.

Homeless people accounted for more than a quarter of the overall hypothermia-related hospital visits for that month, up from 8 percent.

Four adults and one child died on the streets during January -- another unusually high number.

Multnomah County commissioners this week discussed how to improve the county's response to events like the snowstorm. Both the city and county asked for reports on how they handled the winter storms and how they could improve.

Hundreds of people from government agencies and the public volunteered to staff shelters during the storm, but the outpouring of help presented new problems, the analysis found. Many of the volunteers said they wished they had more training to be more useful and interact with people who sought shelter, said Marc Jolin, head of the city-county joint office of homeless services.

He told commissioners that his office is discussing how to provide more on-the-spot training as well as building up a force of trained volunteers.

"Hopefully, we won't see a winter like this again for many years but we need to be prepared if it comes again next year," Jolin said.

Each morning of the cold snap, homeless service providers and county and city officials gathered on a conference call to estimate how many beds were needed for the next night. If shelters -- 17 temporary ones on top of the year-round shelters -- were reaching capacity, then they talked about where they could put additional people.

The Portland Building in downtown became an emergency warming shelter as did a county building Gresham. On Jan. 15, 748 people sought shelter -- the high for the snowstorm.

No more than 575 sought shelter on a single night before this year.

Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury said that the large number shows how many people are willing to come inside if they can bring their pets and belongings, loosening the rules of many shelters so people would use them.

Kafoury asked the joint office of homeless services for more shelter capacity in Gresham, and joined other commissioners in urging the homeless services office to continue increasing shelter capacity throughout the county.

"These deaths were tragic and were highlighted by this emergency system," said Commissioner Sharon Meieran. "But more than 80 people die on the streets each year from similar issues and we can't forget about that either."

The county is asking the federal government for $3.6 million in reimbursements for the costs of providing beefed up emergency services, and Director of the Office of Emergency Services Chris Voss said many nonprofits and other volunteer and contracted organizations could also likely file for reimbursement. But many don't know that or are unfamiliar with the process, Voss said.

He said he's already working with the financial department on ways to make sure that process is clearer and easier for everyone.

Thirty-eight of 144 people who visited emergency care centers for hypothermia were homeless. A Multnomah County administrator said in a meeting that all 144 people were homeless. A county official later clarified over email.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbarger