During the last week of January, communities across the country conduct a count of their homeless population.
In Lane County this year, while the number of unsheltered people may not yet be decreasing, there’s an added motivation.
Jason Davis with Lane County Health and Human Services told KLCC the momentum stems from Governor Tina Kotek’s 2023 “homelessness state of emergency” declaration. With the funding and other support from the state, he said, “We were able to pull in so many service providers and so many other municipalities, and other local governments together and row in the same direction. That almost has never happened in the history of Lane County’s effort towards combating homelessness.”
Davis said the county had great results in prevention and providing emergency shelter. One prevention program offered rent or utility assistance to qualified people facing eviction. He said the community now has the tools to get the work done.
Davis said it will be important to look at this year’s point-in-time numbers and pay attention to the trends. He said the total number of unsheltered people has been roughly steady since its 2021 peak, “but that’s not necessarily good news, because we would expect those numbers to go down as there are more options in the community.” Davis said it can feel like swimming upstream, when shelter options are being added, while more people are becoming homeless.
A couple of weeks ago, the governor extended Oregon’s homelessness state of emergency.
