Evictions and Housing Crisis Drive 67% Spike in Multnomah County Homelessness

MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Ore. — A Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, a one-night snapshot required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the night of January 22, 2025, showed a 67% increase in the Multnomah County homeless population since 2023. Clackamas County increased by 39% while Washington County had a 22% increase.

A recent Portland State University (PSU) Homeless Research & Action Collaborative report confirmed that Multnomah County has 67% more homeless people than were counted in 2023. The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count helps inform funding, policy, and resource allocation in the tri-county region, which found that 12,034 people are experiencing homelessness.

In the tri-county region (Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington), homelessness increased by 61% overall. Of the 7,483 people experiencing homelessness counted in 2023, approximately 6,300 were in Multnomah County, 411 in Clackamas County, and 772 in Washington County.

In Multnomah County, an additional administrative data source was added, which boosted the numbers, and outreach and counting methods have improved. As more outreach workers improve data collection and more shelter beds are tracked, more people who were previously missed may have been counted this year.

But the PSU report suggests that the increase in evictions since 2023 (a 33% increase in Multnomah County), the ongoing affordable housing crisis, and expanded outreach are the reasons more homeless people were counted this year.