Three years after Gov. Tina Kotek declared a “homelessness state of emergency” in the state — and despite intensive efforts to boost housing and social services — the number of Oregonians without a place to live continues to rise in many places.
So Kotek is now re-upping her emergency declaration for the third time since taking office in 2023.
According to the executive order, which was made public Friday, the state has made measurable progress, but the underlying conditions that led to the declaration “have not yet fully resolved.”
“We have helped thousands of people move from the streets into shelter, from shelter into homes, and prevented thousands more from experiencing homelessness in the first place,” Kotek said in a statement. “But we must maintain the momentum and strengthen our focus on the intersection of homelessness, mental health, and addiction.”
Since first declaring a state of emergency in January 2023, on her first day in office, Kotek says the state has created or preserved more than 6,250 shelter beds, housed more than 5,500 homeless Oregonians, and prevented nearly 26,000 households from becoming homeless with financial assistance. Under the new order, Kotek says she wants the state to re-house another 1,400 people and prevent 8,000 households from becoming homeless.
The order will keep Oregon under a state of emergency for up to another year, though Kotek says she’ll reassess every couple of months. It is focused on areas of the state that have seen the most persistent rise in homelessness in recent years: the Portland metro region, Central Oregon, the Eugene area, the Medford area, and Salem, along with Linn, Clatsop and Malheur Counties.
With the latest decree, the governor is hoping to focus more attention on people on the streets struggling with drug addiction or mental illness. To that end, Kotek is steering $20 million approved by lawmakers last year to create more permanent supportive housing that can offer intensive services to people with those issues. She’s also directing agencies to develop clearer pathways into supportive housing for individuals ready to leave the Oregon State Hospital or similar institutions.
Kotek’s announcement says she’ll free up an additional $19 million for creating new treatment resources for criminal defendants who have been ruled unable to face charges because of mental illness.
The state’s housing shortage and threadbare mental health system have been major focuses of Kotek’s administration.
But as she seeks reelection this year, the governor will also have to grapple with the fact that the number of homeless Oregonians has risen in recent years. While the state has not released its latest estimate of how many people are homeless in the state, many areas say their numbers are up.
In the Portland metro region, for instance, a “point-in-time” count conducted in January 2025 estimated that 12,034 people were homeless in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, a 61% increase from two years before.
Officials say the increase is due in part to more comprehensive data used in the 2025 count. But Multnomah County, which has its own tool, estimates nearly 17,000 people were houseless within its borders as of October.
The issue isn’t limited to Portland. Central Oregon’s count turned up a 17% increase in homeless residents compared to a year before, and Lane County’s number was up 14%. The Salem region, too, reported an increase.
The point-in-time counts adopt the definition of homelessness used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which includes people living in shelters or who have “a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for regular sleeping accommodation.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
