Is Portland Bolstering Homeless Numbers to Get More Federal Funding?

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Friday, January 30, 2015

Annie Ellison, GoLocalPDX Reporter

A population usually ushered out of sight is being deliberately left in plain view this week to secure federal funding for homeless initiatives.
 
Under direction from the Portland Housing Bureau, law enforcement, park rangers, and transit police, among others, have stopped clearing out homeless camps, while dozens of volunteers and outreach workers count the city’s homeless population.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) point in time homeless count, which began this week in Portand, counts people who are sleeping in places unintended for habitation, such as abandoned buildings, streets, encampments and vehicles. People experiencing homelessness are asked a series of questions, and sign their initials to avoid duplication. 

The data obtained from the count will guide policy and discussion for the next two years. It is also the only road to receiving federal grants from HUD.
 
“You get more money the more people you’re able to count,” said Paul Boden, Director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), a homeless rights group, who is skeptical of the move to call off the camping ban enforcement for just two weeks during the count. 
 
“If they can do it for a week, they can do it forever,” said Ibrahim Mubarak, co-founder of Right 2 Dream Too, a homeless community in Portland’s Old Town District. “Right 2 Dream Too and Right 2 Survive have been asking police for years not to sweep people off the street,” said Mubarak. 

Sally Erickson, Homeless Programs Manager at the Portland Housing Bureau, said officials are taking what measures they can to get the most accurate count possible. 

“We need to tell the story adequately, about how we’re doing in addressing homelessness,” she said.

Calling off camp clean-ups

A group of park rangers, police, service providers and outreach workers agreed “a more complete count” would be possible if officials stopped enforcing Portland’s anti-camping ordinance for the duration of the January street count. This includes camp sweeps and clean ups, Erickson said, and was a measure that proved successful during the count two years ago. 
 

Under the group’s advice, Housing Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s office sent an email requesting all Multnomah County agencies that enforce the ordinance by conducting camp sweeps or clean-ups suspend enforcement from Jan. 21 until Feb. 3. 

These include Portland Parks, Portland Police, Multnomah County Sheriff, Gresham Police, Fairview Police, Troutdale Police, River Patrol, Oregon Department of Transportation, Metro, Union Pacific Railroad, the Port of Portland, the Water Bureau, PBOT and others.

Marc Jolin, Director of the city’s Home For Everyone Initiative, said the days-long documentation is more than just a head count, but provides critical information about the homeless population for service providers. 

“HUD requires that we conduct the count at least every other year and our doing so affects our overall application, so not doing it would adversely affect all of the HUD funded projects in our community,” said Jolin. 

Point in Time Count 
 
Volunteers and outreach workers from hundreds of agencies fanned out across Multnomah County Wednesday night and Thursday morning for the one-night count of people living on the streets. The same night, volunteers conducted a one-night count of people accessing shelters. 

In the months following the count, nonprofits and government service providers will begin feverishly applying for hundreds of grants through HUD, which will go to fund future projects.

“You’re trying to show a need,” Boden said. “These are really competitive grants.” All groups that receive funding from HUD must do the point-in-time count every two years. 

Federal grant money

Over $15 million in federal dollars secured in Portland, Gresham and Multnomah County last year will go to fund more than 40 front-line initiatives, including, heat shelters, women’s shelters, rent assistance, youth and and mental health services. 

The overwhelming majority of money obtained through federal grants -- known as McKinney grants, after the 1987 McKinney-Vento Assistance Act -- goes to programs servicing single adults. 
 
Erickson said the number of people counted indirectly impacts the level of funding the city gets for homeless initiatives through an elaborate algorithm. 
 
Boden has criticized the point-in-time homeless count for not gauging or assessing homelessness accurately, because it misses families and people who are couch-surfing or living in vehicles, and focuses less on addressing the gap between need and services. He said many stakeholders agree.
 
“The only reason they do it is for the federal money,” he said. “Everybody criticizes this shit off the record.”  

In Portland, illegal camping can incur a $100 fine or 30 days in jail. Boden is part of a coalition pushing forth Senator Chip Shields’ fledgling Right to Rest bill, which would allow unhoused people to legally sleep in parks, on sidewalks, and other public places.
 
“If they’re going to do it when it’s to their economic advantage, they should do it as human beings and all support the Right to Rest Act,” he said. 

The Housing Bureau’s Ryan Diebert said the number of homeless people counted does not correlate to the amount of McKinney grant money a city is awarded.

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