A report presented to Lane County Commissioners on Wednesday, April 4 showed Lane County is transitioning more unhoused people into permanent housing than in previous years, but the overall percentage of people gaining housing has dropped.
The report, presented by representatives from the county’s Human Services, Emergency, and Homeless Management Information System programs, tracks the effectiveness of four services for people experiencing homelessness: emergency shelters, transitional housing, rapid re-housing assistance and permanent supportive housing. These served 4,706 people across 3,896 households in the 2022 fiscal year.
Of the households that exited the system in 2022, 364 (15%) got into permanent housing, compared to 311 (20%) in 2021.
Two of the main metrics tracked in the report are average length of homelessness for people who accessed any of those four services, which is increasing, and average length of homelessness for those who accessed just emergency shelters and transitional housing, which tends to be shorter and is continuing to decrease.
People in Lane County who accessed any of these four services in 2022 stayed homeless for an average 3.06 years, which is up from 2.86 years in 2021. This is largely related to the long wait times for rapid re-housing and permanent supportive housing, according to Lane County Interim Human Services Manager Kate Budd.
Those who only stayed in emergency shelters or transitional housing stayed homeless for an average 110 days, down from 158 days in 2021.
Commissioner Pat Farr saw these wait times as highlighting the need for housing development: “One of the big issues that we have is there’s no place to go. When you get to a certain level, you’re ready for permanent housing but there’s no permanent housing available. You can’t move somebody into something that’s not there.”
The report also highlighted the county’s newly expanded street outreach teams, which got 23% of the people they worked with into permanent housing in 2022, up from 14% in 2021.
The state approved the plan Lane County sent on March 10 for addressing homelessness. The county has since established specific numbers to target: prevent 1,578 households from becoming homeless, add 230 emergency shelter beds and rehouse 247 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
These prevention and rehousing targets fall within the state’s recommendation. The bed target is higher. However, according to the county’s homeless point-in-time count from 2022, these targets still underserve the need.
The Emerald put together this table using county data. It assumes targets related to emergency shelter beds and unsheltered rehousing are met, sheltered rehousing continues at 2022 rate and shelters manage to increase to 100% capacity.
The county has added 38 emergency shelter beds so far this year. With the addition, the county will have 987 beds for over twice that many unhoused people. The Point-in-Time count doesn’t take into account alternative and drop-in shelters such as safe sleep sites, which add another 881 beds, but half of the proposed new emergency shelter beds will come from upgrading alternative shelters.
The county initially requested $34 million for these three goals. The allotment from the state has yet to be determined, but will be between $19.9 and $22.2 million.
The fact the funding amount hasn’t been determined is a concern for Commissioner Heather Buch, who said she wanted to ensure the county could sustain the work through the end of the year.
The report also included an assessment of the 23 agencies the county works with to provide unhoused services, which were on track to meet 16 of their 19 goals for the 22-23 fiscal year, based on data from the first half of that period. Most notably, street outreach programs helped 313 people get access to healthcare when their goal was 250 for the year.
But some goals are not on track. The county has provided food assistance to about 14,000 of its targeted 32,600 households.
The county has goals to move 30% of people living in alternative shelters to temporary or permanent housing –– which currently happens for 28% of those people –– and to increase the rate at which people in Permanent Supportive Housing either stay for at least a year or move into permanent housing, which is at 78% with a goal of 85%.
Commissioner Laurie Trieger praised the county’s partners for meeting and coming close to these goals. “I hear these projects as not only addressing the immediate need, but a real opportunity for us to create a really strong systems change agenda,” she said.
