Putting a Face on Homelessness in Washington County

• The faces of the homeless are families with children, single men and women, vets, and many who are impaired. It is estimated that in Washington County up to 86% of homelessness occurs to families.
• The average age of a person in a county shelter is a 12-year-old child.
• In Washington County more than 43,000 (34%) of our neighbors are one catastrophic illness or lost job away from becoming homeless.
• Since the 4 homeless shelters have only 110 beds, only 12 out of every 100 of the homeless who seek shelter every month in our county will be served.
• The Washington County One Night Count conducted in January counted 1262 homeless people in 2009. The actual number is much higher. Since the 2009 January count, estimates indicate those numbers have gone up at least 35% based on nationwide data.

Who are the homeless?

Homelessness is stereotypically considered a problem confronted by individuals (often men) living on the streets of the inner city down on their luck due to alcohol or drug addiction. This picture of homeless, often reinforced by media coverage during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays of soup kitchens serving the poor turkey dinners, is largely an urban myth.

More and more homelessness affects families with children, especially in the suburbs. The article below illustrates the problem of homeless is far more complex than most people realize and closer to our homes wherever we live, in the city, in the burbs or in small town America. We now face the suburbanization of poverty and with it homelessness.

How many Oregonians are homeless?

Oregon has the highest % of homelessness in the USA with 0.5% or 20,653. This is an increase over previous estimates in 2006-07 of 16,000. Washington State by contrast has a 0.3% rate or 21,955. The one night counts that this data is based on undercounts the homeless significantly. One could probably double or triple these numbers.

For example in Washington County we know that over 1300 school aged children are “officially homeless” – meaning they have no permanent residence (either being on the streets, living with friends or relatives or being in county shelters which can take only 12 of every 100 family applicants for only weeks at a time).

What can be done?

The Obama administration is directing resources to address this crisis focused like Washington County’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness on what is termed a “housing first” strategy. We need to move away from the shelter business to rapid rehousing and the prevention of homelessness.

In Washington County, the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness is a major initiative which began this year. The Interfaith Committee on Homelessness played an important role in convincing our county leaders to step up to this challenge. But too much of the effort depends on federal funding.

We need to develop local resources to respond, including support by the faith community. We also actively supported the passage of HB 2436 – The Oregon Housing Opportunity Act in the last legislative session. Through an increase in county document recording fees this bill creates a permanent state fund to support the building of low income housing in Washington County and across Oregon. This is an important addition to state funds to help address the needs of the housing insecure including the homeless.

However, even with federal, state and county efforts, more needs to be done to stitch together the frail safety net of public and private programs which are responding to this national, state and local crisis. Here’s where the faith community of Washington County comes into the picture.