Portland is facing an unprecedented homelessness crisis, with devastating impacts on individuals, communities, and the larger region. Overall homelessness, which includes sheltered homelessness and unsheltered homelessness, continues to rise. Sheltered homelessness includes individuals who live in temporary living situations like emergency shelters or transitional housing. Those experiencing unsheltered homelessness are those who live in places not meant for human habitation, such in cars or outside.

This metric reflects unsheltered homelessness in Multnomah County but includes data from the City of Portland because geographically the City is almost entirely within Multnomah County. The City of Portland and Multnomah County work together to provide services to address homelessness.

The number of people experiencing all types of homelessness, including unsheltered homelessness UNSHELTERED HOMELESSNESS: Number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness (Multnomah County “By Name” list), in the Multnomah County has been steadily increasing, particularly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase is reflected in both the Point in Time (PIT) count required by HUD and in the new “by name” database tracked by Multnomah County, which was released in April 2025.

The new data provided by Multnomah County presents a more accurate picture of the scale of the homelessness crisis. These data inform the work done by Portland Solutions, which is an office that combines the City’s programs addressing homelessness and livability issues, and the Portland Housing Bureau’s work around affordable housing. The City works in collaboration with Multnomah County’s Homeless Services Department (previously the Joint Office of Homeless Services) to assist community members suffering from homelessness on their journey to permanent and stable housing.

Multnomah County updates the Homeless Services Department data dashboard monthly. These data are the most accurate reflection of the number of people experiencing homelessness because the data are collected as people access services. Because these data are tracked “by name”, an individual will not be double counted if they access different services or shelter locations. The number of people experiencing homelessness overall includes those who are sheltered, unsheltered, and unknown housing status.

Homelessness data is difficult to track as definitions for homelessness vary, the population of those experiencing homelessness are sometimes reluctant to be counted, and organizations gather data differently; thus this data does not necessarily reflect the entire homeless population.

The PIT count is a street survey of those experiencing unsheltered homelessness that takes place in January every other year. Reliable data could not be collected in 2021 because of the pandemic. Data was collected instead in 2022, and then back to the regular schedule of collecting data in odd years in 2023. The 2025 PIT count data should be available summer of 2025. For those experiencing sheltered homelessness, the PIT count uses administrative datasets.

On this dashboard, we show both the "by name" list and the PIT count because they serve different purposes. The “by name” list shows a more accurate picture of the number of people experiencing homelessness, but the PIT count provides historical data and is a national standard.

To mirror the January snapshot from the PIT count, annual Multnomah County numbers shown in this metric are from January.

You can review monthly homelessness numbers based on the “by name” list on Multnomah County’s Homelessness Dashboard.

You can read the official Point in Time reports as they are released by Multnomah County’s Homeless Services Department (HSD), formerly known as the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS).

For more information on the City of Portland’s response to homelessness, please visit the Shelter Services webpage and the Shelter Services Data Dashboard.