Welcome Home Coalition Policy Brief
The Portland Metro Area has a high funding per capita investment to solve the homelessness crisis, and yet our results are lackluster. What we can do collectively to have more of a positive impact on people’s lives is paramount to Rose Haven’s mission.
Welcome Home, a multicultural alliance in the Portland metro region generating a movement for housing justice, released a policy brief in April. The data on the current homelessness situation in Portland is sobering, but there are recommendations, tested and proven in other cities, for Portland to better leverage the investments being made to help our vulnerable populations secure stable housing.
Read on for a short summary of the brief, and then check out and share the full paper to learn more. Hoping this sparks conversations within your community.
What is driving the housing crisis?
- Rising rental prices and lower vacancy rates
- Portland is higher than the national average. According to Redfin, Portland’s rental increase rate was DOUBLE the national average between 2021 and 2022 at 39%
- It’s not surprising then that during the same period, Multnomah County saw a 30.2% increase in people experiencing homelessness since 2019.
Today, one in four renters pay more than 50% of their income for housing costs. In East Portland, the number is even higher – one in three. If you need to pay more than a third of your income on housing, you are considered Rent Burdened. - Finding an affordable place to live is directly tied to your income. The Gap report released in the spring shows that in 2023 in the Portland metro, individuals making at least $81,000 can find an available and affordable place to rent. But this percentage drops significantly if the individual is living on $41,000 or $25,000 or less a year.
- Over 80% of evictions in the Portland metro area are consistently for nonpayment of rent.
What has been Portland’s response?
The main policy solution to ending homelessness has been prioritizing shelter. Called the “Community Sheltering Strategy”, this policy has expanded shelter capacity by 107% since 2022. Regardless, the FY23 auditor’s report revealed bleak results with only 24% of people moving into permanent housing from a shelter. Net-net, the policy is driving long term homelessness instead of decreasing or ending it. Data also indicates that there has been a decline in moving individuals from emergency shelter into permanent housing.
In addition to the meager results of the investment, shelters are not a preferred housing solution by those in need of shelter.
The Good News
Other cities are seeing success by implementing different policy approaches. Portland can learn from these proven approaches to successfully reducing homelessness.
- Los Angeles has seen a decrease in unsheltered homelessness after adopting practices borrowed from Houston, including encampment resolution efforts, forming a strike team to prevent bureaucratic and policy related bottlenecks, identifying multiple people for every supportive housing unit though a single universal housing application, and leasing entire apartment buildings.
- Houston has seen steady declines in homelessness by focusing on public investment on permanent housing support in conjunction with looser permitting requirements to accelerate housing construction.
- Milwaukee reduced overall by homelessness by 46.3% and cut unsheltered homelessness by 91.8% in five years, success attributed to investing more in Housing First practices than in shelter.
A Housing First Strategy is based on five core principles
- Providing Immediate Access to Housing without “readiness conditions”
- Ensuring consumers have choice & self determination in their path to housing
- Taking a recovery orientated approach that provides the resources individuals identify as needed to re-stabilize their lives
- Individualized & person driven supports for addressing their personal circumstances
- Facilitating social & community integration.
Welcome Home supports an investment shift to provide a stronger emphasis on housing and support services.
Read the detailed recommendations on implementing a Housing First strategy in Portland, and more information on how several cities are seeing positive results in Homelessness is A Real Housing Problem: Portland, Oregon edition, April 2025, a Welcome Home Coalition Policy Brief.
