(Portland, Or) The total number of homeless people in Multnomah County is up 30 percent since 2019, according to data released by the county’s Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) Wednesday. The majority of the increase is made up of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness—a term to define those who are living on the streets as opposed to in transitional housing or emergency shelters. As of 2022, 3,057 people were living unsheltered in the county, compared to 2,037 in 2019.
The data was collected as part JOHS’s biannual Point in Time Count, during which hundreds of people gather information on where homeless people in Multnomah County are spending one night of the year. This year, volunteers visited overnight shelters, encampments, transitional housing projects, and more on January 26, 2022. Because the count is conducted on one night, JOHS leaders note that it doesn’t represent how many people move in and out of homelessness throughout the year, or how many people are unhoused but temporarily staying at a friend or family member’s house that night. While the data is the best snapshot the region has when it comes to understanding the number of unhoused people in the county, leaders say it is limited and should be considered an undercount.
Poster Comment:
Biden has flooded the country with legal and illegal aliens driving up rents and lowering real wages after discounting for inflation.