New data shows that many people helped out of homelessness with housing remain stably housed even years after they’re no longer receiving rent assistance.
And Multnomah County is increasing those resources: Between July 2023 and June 2024, Multnomah County helped 5,477 people leave homelessness for housing. Notably, more than half of those placements — 2,890 — were possible thanks to a service called rapid rehousing, which helps people move quickly into housing with up to two years of rent assistance to help them remain there.
These results were shared with the Board of County Commissioners on Dec. 3, 2024, as part of a briefing from the Joint Office of Homeless Services focused on rapid rehousing. The presentation was the result of a request from Commissioner Sharon Meieran during the FY 2024-25 budget process for further information and analysis on rapid rehousing.
Presenters shared how rapid rehousing works, and who it serves best.
“To be clear, rapid rehousing is not just rent assistance; it's paired with supportive services,” said Anna Plumb, deputy director of the Joint Office. “Rapid rehousing can go from 1 to 24 months, paired with supportive services to help folks stabilize in that housing.”
Rapid rehousing is focused on people experiencing homelessness, and the services are provided by more than 20 contracted providers. They connect participants to the resource through services like street outreach, mobile housing programs and shelters.
The Joint Office invests about $48 million annually into rapid rehousing, thanks in large part to the voter-approved Supportive Housing Services measure. But it also receives funding from the County, the City of Portland, and federal and state governments.
Of the 2,890 households placed in rapid rehousing last fiscal year, 63% identified as Black, Indigenous or People of Color. On average, households in the program received 11.3 months of rent assistance, and the average household was budgeted $17,450 for assistance, (including rent, client assistance and case management).
New data suggests program provides long-term stability
The Joint Office also shared improved data focused on rapid rehousing’s long-term impacts on homelessness. The department measures this by tracking how many people who received the assistance are still in housing after their assistance ended.
Before now, the department used a method for measuring retention that was sometimes problematic: It required that households be contacted for follow-up at certain intervals after their subsidies ended. But because the metric relied on whether someone picked up the phone, it meant the data had reliability issues.
But now, thanks to the Joint Office’s deep focus on data improvement, the Joint Office now has more accurate data on this measure. Instead of relying on follow-up conversations, analysts can track whether people who were in rapid rehousing have reengaged in homeless services since their subsidy ended, said Lori Kelley, planning and evaluation manager for the Joint Office. This data captures more people, and is made possible because of the Joint Office’s work to build up its by-name list of people experiencing homelessness.
These new metrics indicate that while rapid rehousing is a short-term intervention, with rent assistance lasting up to two years, it’s had long-term success for many people.
The Joint Office reported that 91% of people provided rapid rehousing in FY 2022-23 were still in housing one year after the date they stopped receiving rapid rehousing rent assistance. Those rates stayed above 80% even among people whose rapid rehousing rent assistance stopped two or three years earlier.
Joint Office to conduct in-depth evaluation on rapid rehousing
In her budget note, Commissioner Meieran had asked for an evaluation of how many people receiving rapid rehousing rent assistance faced eviction, as well as for an evaluation of the experiences of rapid rehousing providers and participants.
Plumb, deputy director of the Joint Office, said some aspects of the budget note needed more time than what was possible in the six-month timeline provided by the budget note. And yet that work will still happen, she said, as part of a pre-existing evaluation plan led by the Joint Office.
“It's actually not enough time to perform a comprehensive evaluation of rapid rehousing, but the budget note aligns with the plans the office had to evaluate rapid rehousing,” Plumb said.
Kelley said the Joint Office will be launching an in-depth rapid rehousing evaluation, and shared the focuses of that evaluation:
- An overview of current programming.
- Recommendations for designing and operating rapid rehousing programs in a high-need environment.
- A review of lessons learned from recent rapid rehousing pilot programming, and an evaluation of our participant outcome metrics, identifying strengths and potential improvements.
The presenters said work on the evaluation will launch soon, and they offered Board members a chance to provide feedback on the planned evaluation.
Board members share thoughts and feedback
Commissioner Meieran, who submitted the budget note that resulted in the briefing, asked some follow-up questions.
Regarding who qualifies for the assistance, she asked, “How do you define those people who experience homelessness? Who are they, are they people living on the street, couch-surfing, are they at risk of losing their homes? That group that we say have been rapidly rehoused, how is that defined?”
Plumb said the Joint Office purposely uses a broad definition of homelessness. “It encompasses almost all of the groups you mentioned,” she said. “It does include people who are literally homeless on the street, folks living in a shelter, folks who are unsafely doubled up,” she said.
Commissioner Meieran also noted that one year of rent, for example, might not be enough for people experiencing homelessness to stabilize in housing. “I would like to really drill down into that, and understand how it is that we're supporting people so their housing lasts beyond the subsidy,” she said.
Plumb confirmed that retention rates evaluate how long people remain in housing after their subsidy has ended, not just while they’re actively receiving rent assistance. She said the upcoming evaluation will look more deeply at how those numbers align with people’s experiences.
“I understand what you're saying, and we are hoping to dig deeper into that,” Plumb said.
Commissioner Shannon Singleton highlighted flexibility as key to the success of rapid rehousing. Rent assistance from other sources, including the federal government, can sometimes come with conditions that limit who can receive it and how quickly they can use it.
“I want to note as a former rapid rehousing provider, I would be devastated if the flexibility was removed. I think it’s really important that part of your analysis is talking to the workers on the frontline to understand how they are using this flexible money,” she said. “It's usually the only flexible money in the system.”
Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards asked how the 2,890 people served with rapid rehousing affects the total number of people experiencing homelessness, which was 11,153 as of January 2024.
“Where does the 2,890 fit into that number? How many of those were inflow, outflow? How are we making net reductions in the total number?” she asked. “We have a lot invested in strategy, and to know that we're using the money effectively is going to be key.”
Plumb said the Joint Office will be releasing a new data dashboard in early 2025 that will not only provide a monthly snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness overall, but will also capture how many people became homeless on a monthly basis (“inflow”), as well as how many people left homelessness for housing each month (“outflow”).
Commissioner Lori Stegmann recommended the evaluation also look at the employment status of people served with rapid rehousing.
“Are we connecting those people to jobs? We can help you for 12 months, 24 months. But if there's no way for that person to be self-sufficient we're not moving the dial," she said. "And while we want to help people in an emergency situation, it's vital that we connect all of the systems.”
“I think we can absolutely fold that in as one of the services we evaluate as rapid rehousing support,” Plumb said. “As we’re looking at what works in rapid rehousing, we can fold in employment support or acquisition support.”
Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said rapid rehousing is an “important piece of the puzzle in the tools we have to address homelessness in our community.”
She also noted that proposed changes to the Supportive Housing Services measure, under consideration by Metro, could affect the County’s homeless services. The conversations are happening even as the Joint Office spent every dollar it received from the measure last fiscal year, helping thousands of people leave streets and sidewalks for apartments or shelter beds.
Discussions under way could limit how much funding counties receive annually, thereby reducing what’s available for life-saving services such as rent assistance, outreach and shelter.
“There are changes being discussed right now to the Metro Supportive Housing Services dollars. Some of the plans we have for providing shelter, rental assistance, longer-term supports for people — all of that is predicated on the assumptions of the resources we have,” she said. “As discussions move forward, that's going to have a huge impact on what we're able to do.”
Watch the briefing
