Gov. Tina Kotek on Thursday extended her emergency order declaring a state of homelessness in Oregon for a third year.
Kotek signed the initial executive order on her first day in office and issued an extension on Jan 9, 2024. Thursday’s extension acknowledged an ongoing increase in unsheltered homelessness across the state.
The executive order extends the declaration of an emergency and directs the Department of Emergency Management, the Oregon Housing and Community Services and the Oregon Health Authority to continue coordinating with others to develop a homeless response infrastructure for a long-term reduction of homelessness.
How many people are experiencing homelessness in Oregon?
The executive order references data from the annual Point in Time count on January 2023. According to the statewide estimates released a year ago, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Oregon was 20,110.
Of those people, 13,004 were unsheltered, a 17.2% increase from 2022.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 report estimated a total of 22,875 people experiencing homelessness with 14,191 unsheltered.
Oregon had the second-highest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the country, according to the 2023 Point in Time count. According to the 2024 HUD report, Oregon had the eighth-largest homeless population in the nation.
Gov. Tina Kotek talks about homelessness at the State Library of Oregon on Oct. 3, 2024.
What changed in the first 2 years of Kotek’s executive order
Lawmakers have passed legislation in the two years since Kotek took office to address housing and homelessness. About two months after Kotek took office, the 2023 Legislature approved a $200 million homelessness and housing package to her desk.
That year, she also signed Senate Bill 5511, directing $2.5 billion for the Oregon Housing and Community Services through the budget year that ends June 31, 2025. The agency’s budget bill included $111 million to maintain shelter capacity and rapid rehousing, $24 million to support existing shelters, $55 million for rental assistance, and $6 million for grants that go toward eviction prevention.
In 2024, lawmakers approved Kotek’s $376 million housing package.
In October, she delivered a “progress report” that said thousands of Oregonians had been housed and 24,000 had been prevented from becoming homeless.
A dashboard maintained by the Oregon Housing and Community Services with data from January through June 30, 2024 indicated the state was at 81% of its goal to rehouse households but lagging in preventing households from becoming homeless.
Kotek’s office said Thursday that projections show 5,500 shelter beds will be funded by July 1, 3,300 households rehoused and 24,000 households prevented from experiencing homelessness.
Kotek requests additional funding toward goals
The governor’s proposed budget recommends an additional $700 million for homelessness for the next two years.
“We must stay the course on what we see working. If we keep at this pace, 1 in every 3 people who were experiencing homelessness in 2023 will be rehoused,” Kotek said in a prepared statement.
“Since declaring the homelessness emergency response two years ago, we exceeded the targets we set through a statewide homelessness infrastructure we never had before,” she said. “But the urgency remains as homelessness continues to increase and we need to see this strategy through.”
Kotek’s recommended budget also seeks more than $1.4 billion to create new housing. The state has a shortage of 140,000 housing units, according to a 2022 Oregon Housing Needs Analysis.
The executive order is effective immediately and will end on January 10, 2026, unless Kotek extends it again or terminates it early.
Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on Twitter @DianneLugo
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon homelessness state of emergency order extended