Denis Theriault, denis.theriault@multco.us, 510-875-8546
Julia Comnes, julia.comnes@multco.us, 971-442-0177
PORTLAND — Marking a major milestone in its ongoing work with the Built for Zero initiative, the Joint Office of Homeless Services today is releasing its first monthly data report based on a by-name list of people experiencing chronic homelessness in Multnomah County. Key data points are available on the Joint Office’s Built for Zero webpage.
The report shows 2,819 people experienced chronic homelessness in Multnomah County in February 2023. The report also includes monthly data going back to September 2021, as well as data on how many people each month have either left or fallen into chronic homelessness.
The data is built upon a more expansive and accurate definition of chronic homelessness that better matches the reality of homelessness in Multnomah County and includes people left out of the federal definition of “chronic homelessness.”
The data (PDF) was first presented to Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s Joint Office Systems Data Task Force on April 12. The Task Force was convened this year to support and guide the Joint Office as it tackles ongoing data quality improvement work, including improving data transparency and driving toward better systems integration.
"This is a critical milestone in improving our data collection and better serving individuals and their specific needs and situations," said Chair Vega Pederson. “While we know these numbers are an undercount, this is an important first step towards clarity and accountability.”
“To effectively address Portland’s housing and homeless crisis, we must be able to measure the problem at-scale more accurately,” said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. “These metrics — though still in the early-stages — will help City and County teams better serve vulnerable populations. We join other communities across the U.S. who have utilized Built for Zero methods to improve their homelessness response.
The report follows months of close work — centered on data reliability and other improvements — between the Joint Office, local service providers and Community Solutions, the organization that leads the Built for Zero data initiative. Portland and Multnomah County are one of the largest communities, with the largest number of people experiencing chronic homelessness, to work with Built for Zero.
“We're excited to see Multnomah County reach this important milestone as they continue efforts at system transformation,” said Kristy Greenwalt, Built for Zero consultant for Community Solutions. “The design of workflows and protocols to develop and maintain a comprehensive, quality by-name list of individuals experiencing homelessness is a major undertaking, especially in large, complex communities with an ever-changing landscape.”
The launch of the by-name list is a major milestone in the Joint Office’s implementation of Built for Zero, a data-driven approach to measurably ending homelessness. The improved data will enable the Joint Office to prioritize resources, test changes to the system, and understand whether its efforts are truly helping solve chronic homelessness.
“Understanding how the population of people experiencing homelessness changes from one month to the next helps inform our response — both our understanding of the amount of resources needed to solve the problem, but also the most strategic allocation of the resources available at any given time,” Greenwalt said.
Improved, more expansive data collection means numbers will change
The new “quality by-name list” expands on existing by-name data derived from the Homeless Management and Information System (HMIS), a regional database that tracks service outcomes. The County is working with the city of Portland to take over as the lead administrator of the regional database.
The by-name data also uses an expanded definition of chronic homelessness that more closely matches reality in Multnomah County.
But this data is also expected to adjust as it becomes more comprehensive — both as more people are included in the by-name list, and as people enter and leave homelessness.
Expanded data collection overall, with more information coming from contacts with outreach and other front-line workers, will also affect the number of people counted in monthly reports. Getting more accurate data is one of the goals of this work.
In other cities implementing Built for Zero, it is common for the quality by-name list to increase in the first few months of data collection as the by-name list becomes more robust.
Next steps in Built for Zero implementation
After this release of initial data, the Joint Office will continue its Built for Zero implementation.
Next steps include expanding Built for Zero data collection systems, including increasing data collection during street outreach and other services, as well as working with providers to navigate any barriers to data collection.
Additional data sets will also be produced in the coming months. Monthly progress reports will be published on the Joint Office’s Built for Zero webpage here.
Quality by-name list differs from Point in Time Count
Prior to the creation of the quality by-name list, the best estimate of the number of people experiencing overall or chronic homelessness in the county was the biennial Point in Time Count — a federally required data collection practice that provides a snapshot of homelessness on a given night of the year.
Unlike the Point in Time Count, the Built for Zero by-name list produces real-time, client-level data whose collection is built into the delivery of services. The by-name list is focused on chronic homelessness, while the Point-in-Time Count collects data on the homeless population as a whole.
While a useful tool, the Point in Time Count has never been a complete reflection of homelessness in Multnomah County, and leaders have repeatedly acknowledged that the Point in Time Count is inherently an undercount, even as the Joint Office and its partners have worked in recent years to make the Count more accurate.
The Joint Office will continue using Point in Time Count data in its work. Because of its different approach to data collection, the Count will help assess if there are any gaps in the by-name list data, and will provide data on people who do not fit the definition of chronic homelessness. But the real-time information provided by the by-name list will provide the foundation for assessing the outcomes of programs and services, an essential component of Built for Zero.
The Joint Office’s new data uses a more expansive definition of “chronic homelessness” than the definition used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The definition used by the Joint Office, called “Population A,” was created by the Metro Supportive Housing Services Program.
The Population A definition of chronic homelessness is: “Extremely low-income households with one or more disabling conditions experiencing/at imminent risk of experiencing long-term literal homelessness.” (Disabling conditions can include a physical, psychological or cognitive disability, a chronic illness or an addiction.)
Unlike the HUD definition, to fall into Population A, a person does not need to get a third-party diagnosis of their disabling condition to be considered chronically homeless. Additionally, the Population A definition has fewer parameters about length of homelessness and types of living situations than the HUD definition.
Using a more expansive definition of chronic homelessness supports the work outlined in Multnomah County’s Metro Supportive Housing Services Program Local Implementation Plan and represents the Joint Office’s goal to intentionally include all adult households experiencing or at imminent risk of long-term homelessness, not just those identified under HUD’s definition of Chronic Homelessness.
Using this different definition, however, does mean the Joint Office’s by-name data won’t be directly comparable to data on chronic homelessness that uses the HUD definition, including previous Multnomah County point-in-time data on chronic homelessness.
The Joint Office is focusing on chronic homelessness in its implementation of Built for Zero as an initial step toward ending homelessness for all populations.
For more information:
Read a special edition of the Joint Office of Homeless Services’ monthly newsletter, with more detail about the data report (and with a link to subscribe to catch ongoing updates).
