How many homeless people are in local shelters?
WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.
May 7th, 2008
What do you see in the picture? | WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.1 comment
April 30th, 2008
What Portland neighborhood ranked itself lowest for livability? | WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.3 comments
April 16th, 2008
How many of the PDC’s urban-renewal areas can you name? | WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.3 comments
April 9th, 2008
What percentage of businesses rated Portland as a good place to do business? | WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.1 comment
April 2nd, 2008
How many of your 12 opponents can you name? | WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.0 comments
March 26th, 2008
What Is The Largest Public High School In The City Of Portland?9 comments
March 19th, 2008
How much is a monthly TriMet pass for adults? | WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.2 comments
March 12th, 2008
How many sworn officers are there in the Portland Police Bureau? | WW’s weekly election feature—designed to scare the hell out of City Hall candidates.0 comments
[April 23rd, 2008]
This week’s question to the candidates for ex-Commissioner Erik Sten’s seat: In the most recent one-night head count in the city auditor’s report, how many homeless people were in Portland and Multnomah County shelters?
Nick Fish, labor lawyer and former Housing Authority commissioner: “I’m going to say 800.”
Ed Garren, therapist: “I’ll tell you flat out I don’t know, so why should I try to lie to you?”
Jim Middaugh, Sten’s chief of staff: “In shelters…I know how many we got off the street. [Long pause.] This is where you type ‘long pause.’ Five hundred.”
Fred Stewart, former real-estate agent and bar owner: “I’ve heard this figure before, but I can’t remember. I’m going to take a guess: 1,100.”
Harold Williams Two, youth counselor: “A thousand.”
Story continues below
advertisement
Sally Erickson at Portland's Bureau of Housing and Community Development sends along a clarification regarding the one-night shelter count cited above, which we pulled from the City Auditor's annual "Service Efforts and Accomplishments Survey."
The Auditor's report says a Jan. 24, 2007 "one night shelter count of homeless" totaled 3,018 people. We should've gone to the primary source.
As Erikson notes, that number breaks down as follows:
"674 individuals in shelter
"37 people with motel vouchers
"697 people receiving rent/mortgage assistance (who, without it, would have been homeless; including rent assistance for people who recently exited homelessness)
"1,610 people in transitional housing (Examples include a clean & sober apartment building with services where people can live up to 2 years. Another is 'transition-in-place' rent assistance for families and individuals exiting homelessness. They are provided with services and linkage to employment so, when rent assistance ends, they're still able to pay the rent.)"
Thanks, Sally.