Sounds like a successful and needed resource for Portland …However, one thing stuck out to me….” Donny Collins has been homeless since he arrived in Portland six months ago. He needed a job and a place to live.” Why did Donny come to Portland??How many other people come to Portland, from some place else, just to be homeless. Does Portland attract homeless people from other places ..and why
This stood out to me too - we keep being told people don’t move here to be homeless. Logic and sheer increases in numbers would beg to differ.
My guess would be because we spend 720 million a year catering to people being perpetually homeless. While I have no issue with the storage system in the article, at least it leads to this stuff not being all over the street, there are plenty of things the city/county offer that do zero to move anyone in the direction of employment or housing. Paired with an ongoing pathological resistance to enforcing laws (including open drug use and selling) rampant homelessness ensues.
At some point you begin to wonder …is Portland seen as a good place to have a drug addiction and be homeless…Harm reduction passes out pipes and foil, no way you will ever get arrested… you get a free place to sleep, free food, and a place to store your stuff….all paid for by Multnomah County taxpayers..
“…we keep being told people don’t move here to be homeless”.
This is a policy avoidance mechanism with a specific political bias at its root. Otherwise drug addiction and untreated mental illness (and our inability to commit the obviously insane) could be blamed for a situation obviously caused by “greedy landlords” and “end stage capitalism”. Maintaining the narrative of homegrown homelessness also means we don’t need to acknowledge how our ill-advised drug legalization policy, refusal to prosecute crime (remembering you, Mike Schmidt) and JVP’s never-ending tent/ tarp giveaway program have magnified and metastasized the mess we are experiencing today.
Hopefully people are waking up to this political agenda.
JVP is up for re-election next year - anyone who would give her a vote after her absolutely abysmal performance must be happy to assist in the continued destruction of Portland. No other excuse at this point, when it’s so plainly clear who the enablers of the homeless machine are.
The most comprehensive data on comes from the 2023 Point-in-Time Findings Report: Count of People Experiencing Homelessness in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties, Oregon.
Of unsheltered survey respondents in Multnomah County, about 58% became homeless while living in the county. 42% lost housing elsewhere (other Oregon/Washington counties, other states, or abroad).
Portland's higher rate of homeless persons losing housing elsewhere is higher than other west coast cities. It may be higher than other parts of the country, but there is no data
% of Homeless Population Who Became Homeless Outside the Area
City / County % Out-of-Area
Portland (Multnomah) 42%
Seattle / King 27%
Phoenix/Maricopa 31%
Los Angeles 30%
San Francisco 30%
Denver Metro 29%
San Diego 27%
Sacramento 26%
Austin / Travis 24%
San Jose/Santa Clara 23%
Among those who moved to the area while already homeless, the top reasons cited were:
• 40% had family or friends here
• 12% came for jobs
• ~21% cited homeless services, social service availability, or Portland’s progressive reputation
• 33% gave “other” reasons
So, while most respondents pointed to family or jobs, a significant minority explicitly mentioned Portland’s service network and reputation as motivating factors
I would be interested to know how that information was obtained, especially how the interview questions were worded. With the long-held bias that Portlandia’s homelessness was mostly homegrown by our Social Justice “Experts” in the County, PSU academia and the Homeless Industrial Complex, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that in actuality, many more street people arrived here destitute or without adequate support from day one.
My own “lived-experience” of randomly talking to the homeless verifies this.
It would be great to see an article just about this “trend.” Portland officials deny this up and down, but they are bringing more and more of this to our doorsteps by refusing to admit reality. Imagine how much more manageable this crisis would be if we were only dealing with half of what we see now, and weren’t seeing new inflow all the time, What a nightmare.
I agree with you that an article about this trend would be enlightening. However, at this point the data doesn't exist and probably won't exist in the future.
The primary source of information about the unhoused is the "Point In Time" homeless surveys.
On one night in January a count is coordinated and funded through local Continuums of Care (CoCs), which receive federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Without this survey, there would be almost no large scale information about homelessness in the US.
However, the survey data has limitations.
--Homeless people do not have to answer survey questions. One Multnomah County volunteer interacted with 200-300 persons and only around 50 participated in the survey.
--Questions on the survey regarding how long they have lived in a particular locale, or whether they were homeless when they arrived are not consistent over time.
--Portland covers 145 square miles. Any Point In Time census is going to be an undercount.
--The next Point in Time counts will be severely limited. HUD funding has been cut 44% this year. 84% of the staff that manages homelessness grants has been cut.
Part of Portland Metropolitan area's poor performance in regards to homelessness is because its homelessness system is split across at least five overlapping entities.
Metro (regional tax collector), the Joint Office of Homeless Services , the City of Portland, Multnomah County departments, and nonprofit contractors such as Central City Concern and Transition Projects.
Each controls part of the budget, often with separate databases, reporting metrics, and contract cycles.
The Metro Supportive Housing Services (SHS) audit (2024) found no single body with clear accountability for outcomes, and Portland’s 2023 City Auditor report said funding “has grown faster than the capacity to coordinate or measure performance.”
As a result, programs operate in silos, and money is often re-allocated late or left unspent.
this sounds like a necessary resource/program for getting ones life together. Great!!
Sounds like a successful and needed resource for Portland …However, one thing stuck out to me….” Donny Collins has been homeless since he arrived in Portland six months ago. He needed a job and a place to live.” Why did Donny come to Portland??How many other people come to Portland, from some place else, just to be homeless. Does Portland attract homeless people from other places ..and why
This stood out to me too - we keep being told people don’t move here to be homeless. Logic and sheer increases in numbers would beg to differ.
My guess would be because we spend 720 million a year catering to people being perpetually homeless. While I have no issue with the storage system in the article, at least it leads to this stuff not being all over the street, there are plenty of things the city/county offer that do zero to move anyone in the direction of employment or housing. Paired with an ongoing pathological resistance to enforcing laws (including open drug use and selling) rampant homelessness ensues.
At some point you begin to wonder …is Portland seen as a good place to have a drug addiction and be homeless…Harm reduction passes out pipes and foil, no way you will ever get arrested… you get a free place to sleep, free food, and a place to store your stuff….all paid for by Multnomah County taxpayers..
“…we keep being told people don’t move here to be homeless”.
This is a policy avoidance mechanism with a specific political bias at its root. Otherwise drug addiction and untreated mental illness (and our inability to commit the obviously insane) could be blamed for a situation obviously caused by “greedy landlords” and “end stage capitalism”. Maintaining the narrative of homegrown homelessness also means we don’t need to acknowledge how our ill-advised drug legalization policy, refusal to prosecute crime (remembering you, Mike Schmidt) and JVP’s never-ending tent/ tarp giveaway program have magnified and metastasized the mess we are experiencing today.
Hopefully people are waking up to this political agenda.
JVP is up for re-election next year - anyone who would give her a vote after her absolutely abysmal performance must be happy to assist in the continued destruction of Portland. No other excuse at this point, when it’s so plainly clear who the enablers of the homeless machine are.
The most comprehensive data on comes from the 2023 Point-in-Time Findings Report: Count of People Experiencing Homelessness in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties, Oregon.
Of unsheltered survey respondents in Multnomah County, about 58% became homeless while living in the county. 42% lost housing elsewhere (other Oregon/Washington counties, other states, or abroad).
Portland's higher rate of homeless persons losing housing elsewhere is higher than other west coast cities. It may be higher than other parts of the country, but there is no data
% of Homeless Population Who Became Homeless Outside the Area
City / County % Out-of-Area
Portland (Multnomah) 42%
Seattle / King 27%
Phoenix/Maricopa 31%
Los Angeles 30%
San Francisco 30%
Denver Metro 29%
San Diego 27%
Sacramento 26%
Austin / Travis 24%
San Jose/Santa Clara 23%
Among those who moved to the area while already homeless, the top reasons cited were:
• 40% had family or friends here
• 12% came for jobs
• ~21% cited homeless services, social service availability, or Portland’s progressive reputation
• 33% gave “other” reasons
So, while most respondents pointed to family or jobs, a significant minority explicitly mentioned Portland’s service network and reputation as motivating factors
The source of this information is at https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=hrac_pub.
Scroll to pages 96 and 97 to find the information.
I would be interested to know how that information was obtained, especially how the interview questions were worded. With the long-held bias that Portlandia’s homelessness was mostly homegrown by our Social Justice “Experts” in the County, PSU academia and the Homeless Industrial Complex, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that in actuality, many more street people arrived here destitute or without adequate support from day one.
My own “lived-experience” of randomly talking to the homeless verifies this.
By going to the original research, at least some of your questions can be answered.
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=hrac_pub
It would be great to see an article just about this “trend.” Portland officials deny this up and down, but they are bringing more and more of this to our doorsteps by refusing to admit reality. Imagine how much more manageable this crisis would be if we were only dealing with half of what we see now, and weren’t seeing new inflow all the time, What a nightmare.
I agree with you that an article about this trend would be enlightening. However, at this point the data doesn't exist and probably won't exist in the future.
The primary source of information about the unhoused is the "Point In Time" homeless surveys.
https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/hdx/pit-hic/#2025-pit-count-and-hic-guidance
On one night in January a count is coordinated and funded through local Continuums of Care (CoCs), which receive federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Without this survey, there would be almost no large scale information about homelessness in the US.
However, the survey data has limitations.
--Homeless people do not have to answer survey questions. One Multnomah County volunteer interacted with 200-300 persons and only around 50 participated in the survey.
https://www.opb.org/article/2022/05/05/multnomah-county-oregon-releases-first-homeless-count-point-in-time-two-years/
--Questions on the survey regarding how long they have lived in a particular locale, or whether they were homeless when they arrived are not consistent over time.
--Portland covers 145 square miles. Any Point In Time census is going to be an undercount.
--The next Point in Time counts will be severely limited. HUD funding has been cut 44% this year. 84% of the staff that manages homelessness grants has been cut.
https://www.housingonline.com/2025/05/07/president-trumps-budget-proposal-cuts-hud-funding-by-44-percent/#:~:text=Share:,The%20proposal:
Part of Portland Metropolitan area's poor performance in regards to homelessness is because its homelessness system is split across at least five overlapping entities.
Metro (regional tax collector), the Joint Office of Homeless Services , the City of Portland, Multnomah County departments, and nonprofit contractors such as Central City Concern and Transition Projects.
Each controls part of the budget, often with separate databases, reporting metrics, and contract cycles.
The Metro Supportive Housing Services (SHS) audit (2024) found no single body with clear accountability for outcomes, and Portland’s 2023 City Auditor report said funding “has grown faster than the capacity to coordinate or measure performance.”
As a result, programs operate in silos, and money is often re-allocated late or left unspent.
Source: https://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/default/files/2024/01/08/Supportive-housing-services-audit-january-2024.pdf
Also, of the $721 million, $501 million is for Multnomah County. The other $220 million is for Clackamas and Washington County.
The source for the KGW report which came up with the $721 million figure is:
Source: https://homelessstrategicinitiatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Sources-and-Uses-Report-FY-2024-1.pdf