NEWS RELEASE: In first three months of FY 2024-25, Joint Office of Homeless Services and providers help more than 1,000 people leave homelessness for housing

November 22, 2024

We Shine's Avalon Village, a 10-unit microvillage in Southeast Portland, opened in the first quarter of FY 2025 with support from the Joint Office of Homeless Services.

Key points

In just three months (July-September 2024), the Joint Office and its providers sheltered thousands of people, and helped more than 1,000 people leave homelessness for housing.
Underspending is old news. The Joint Office is exceeding its Supportive Housing Services spending target for the fiscal year, and already spent three times more in the first quarter than it had by the same time last year.
Since 2020, the County and the Joint Office have opened 17 shelters, in addition to nine other shelters opened by the City of Portland. Several more are in development to open over the next year, showing an ongoing commitment to expanded shelter services.

Quarter one reports outline Joint Office progress

Between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2024, the Joint Office of Homeless Services and its network of providers helped 1,044 people leave homelessness for housing and sheltered 4,388 people.

These outcomes from the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024-25 come from recently released reports: the Joint Office’s online dashboard, which shows systemwide numbers, and a recently published quarterly report focused on the Supportive Housing Services Measure.

The Joint Office also showed that it is continuing to efficiently use voter-approved Supportive Housing Services Measure dollars, with $28 million spent in the first quarter of FY 2025 — above its financial targets set with Metro, and more than three times what it had spent by that time last fiscal year.

While an above-target spending rate isn’t an outcome in itself, efficient spending directly correlates to additional housing, shelter and eviction prevention services in the community.

“These reports show that we are hitting our marks and doing what the community has asked of us: effectively using our resources to house and shelter people experiencing homelessness. Despite continued rhetoric to the contrary, we have turned the corner and spent Supportive Housing Services dollars efficiently,” said Joint Office Director Dan Field. “That being said, our work is far from over, and we are working urgently to respond to the ongoing homelessness crisis in our community.”

Highlights from FY 2025 Quarter One (July 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2024)

Providers helped 1,044 people leave homelessness for housing — with a significant portion (421 people) housed with Supportive Housing Services dollars.
Providers sheltered 4,338 people with funding from the Joint Office.
Providers supported 2,775 people with eviction prevention services funded by the Joint Office.
92% of people in permanent supportive housing were still housed one year later.
88% of people who had used a rapid rehousing voucher were still housed one year after their subsidy ended.
The Joint Office spent $28 million in Supportive Housing Services dollars — above its financial targets set with Metro, and more than three times what it spent this time last fiscal year.

The first-quarter outcomes show a continued significant turnaround in the department’s ability to effectively use its allocation of Supportive Housing Services dollars. Last fiscal year, the Joint Office spent every dollar it received from the Metro Supportive Housing Services Measure and also began significantly reducing carryover funding from previous years.

Changes being contemplated by Metro to the Supportive Housing Services Measure will result in more uncertainty in future spending, and fewer available services. This also comes as Metro collected fewer dollars than forecast for the current fiscal year.

As previously shared, in fiscal year 2023-24, the Joint Office’s providers helped 5,477 people leave homelessness for housing, with a significant portion (2,322 people) housed with Supportive Housing Services-funded programs. Providers also sheltered 9,101 people, with 1,160 people served in Supportive Housing Services-funded shelter beds.

Since 2020, the County and the Joint Office have opened 17 shelters, and several more are in development to open over the next year.

Those 17 County-opened shelters are in addition to nine other shelters opened in the same timeframe by the City of Portland, all contributing to a significant and ongoing expansion of emergency services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.