Portland comes in at No. 25 on a list of U.S. cities ranked by rate of homelessness, the number of homeless people per 100,000. Eugene, Oregon ranks No. 10, Los Angeles No. 4, and the Santa Cruz-Watsonville area of California is No. 1.
When you look at states Oregon has the fourth-highest rate of homelessness (fifth if you include Washington, DC) but recently it also saw the second largest percentage decrease with homelessness dropping by 8% from 2019-2020.
Notably, Oregon has one of the highest rates of homeless people who are unsheltered (about 61%), tied for second place with Nevada. California is No. 1. Nationwide about 39% of the homeless are considered unsheltered. An unsheltered homeless person is defined as someone who lives in a place not meant for human habitation like cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings (on the street). A sheltered homeless person is someone who’s staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing.
This information comes mostly from a study by Security.org that uses data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and from HUD itself.
A 2019 UCLA study found “that people who are unsheltered are far more likely to report having chronic health conditions, mental health issues, and experiences with trauma and substance abuse as compared to homeless people who are living in shelters.”
Portland is in Multnomah County where a survey found 38.5% of homeless people said they’re coping with mental illness.
Nationwide the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation says:
According to a 2015 assessment by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 564,708 people were homeless on a given night in the United States. At a minimum, 140,000 or 25 percent of these people were seriously mentally ill, and 250,000 or 45 percent had any mental illness. By comparison, a 2016 study found that 4.2 percent of U.S. adults have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.
HUD’s latest annual homeless assessment report found that 580,466 people were homeless in the U.S. on a single night in late January 2020, an increase of 12,751 people, or 2.2 percent, from 2019:
The report found that between 2019 and 2020, homelessness increased significantly among unsheltered populations and people experiencing chronic homelessness. Veteran homelessness did not decrease compared with 2019, and homelessness among family households did not decrease for the first time since 2010. The report also found that people of color are significantly over-represented among people experiencing homelessness.
