County briefing details shelter-referral practices, pilot data; officials cite HMIS gaps and propose open-referral conversation with Portland

Multnomah County's Homeless Services Department on Feb. 20 presented a briefing on shelter-referral practices, pilot data from eight shelters and next steps to improve data and referral transparency after a budget note from District 3 Commissioner Julia Brim Edwards.

Commissioner Julia Brim Edwards asked for the briefing last year after hearing community concerns that people living in neighborhoods adjacent to shelters sometimes could not access shelter services nearby. "Instead of coming to a conclusion about what was happening, that ask for data was the most important place to sort of just start the discussion," she told the board.

Deputy Director Anna Plum and Research Evaluation Analyst Senior Doc Ramblings described the county's current data and referral landscape. Plum said the county's January 2024 by-name list showed 5,394 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness but that staff are working to deduplicate records and prepare a monthly dashboard to show inflow, outflow and demographics. "We do not systematically collect data on where someone was prior to entering a shelter or other services," Plum said, explaining that HMIS is designed for federal reporting and that collecting prior-location information can create barriers for people seeking shelter.

To help fill that gap, Doc Ramblings led a two-month pilot (Oct.-Nov.) in which eight shelters from three providers recorded prior-living situations for people entering shelter. Ramblings said 465 individuals entered the pilot shelters during the period; about 70% were coming from unsheltered situations and 123 individuals (about 26%) were coming from previously sheltered or housed situations. Of the 465 entries, staff could map 335 responses (72%) with sufficient geographic detail.

Pilot mapping and shelter-level findings

The pilot mapped entrances by shelter and found both local and…