Mid-Columbia's 2023 PIT Count Reveals 5% Rise in Houselessness, Highlights Regional Disparities and Need for Services

The results from the January 2023 Point in Time (PIT) count in the Mid-Columbia region have been collected. While the numbers have not yet been confirmed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), preliminary data shows an overall 5% increase in people experiencing houselessness throughout Wasco, Hood River, and Sherman counties as compared to data collected in 2022.

Over the last two years, improved count coordination among social service agencies in the region has helped provide a better understanding of how houselessness has impacted the Mid-Columbia area. Between 2022-2023, MCCAC’s first full year of pairing extensive rapid rehousing and other housing stabilization supports to guests of The Dalles shelter has coincided with the decrease in houselessness in Wasco County—providing a potential roadmap for other jurisdictions throughout the region looking for successful interventions that may help reduce rates of houselessness in their communities. The 2023 PIT Count results also demonstrate the importance of continued efforts to address the needs of the region’s diverse houseless population, and to support unsheltered houseless community members experiencing mental health and substance abuse issues.

“The preliminary 2023 PIT data for these three counties is especially informative because we laid the groundwork in 2022 for a better side-by-side comparison with data from previous years,” said Kenny LaPoint, Executive Director of Mid-Columbia Community Action Council. “January 2022 was the first time that MCCAC significantly enhanced coordination with other service providers in the region to conduct the PIT Count, especially organizations that provide culturally specific services to houseless families in our area. With the help of partners throughout the Mid-Columbia Houseless Collaborative, we replicated that enhanced coordination when we conducted the 2023 PIT Count this January.”

MCCAC’s first full year of managing operations of The Dalles shelter, and of implementing a more robust rapid rehousing and service coordination strategy, has also demonstrated the value of making strategic enhancements to houseless services. At the time of the January, 2022 PIT Count, MCCAC had been operating the non-congregate shelter in The Dalles for less than a year, and had just begun designing—but not yet implemented—a significantly scaled up rapid rehousing program. Rapid rehousing helps MCCAC’s shelter guests and other houseless clients get back into permanent housing by helping them access landlord incentive funding, security deposit assistance, limited duration rent assistance, and longer-term stabilization supports after housing placement, such as resource navigation and case management services.

Wasco County is currently the only county in the five-county Mid-Columbia region that has a year-round shelter with staff on-site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week who help shelter clients access rapid rehousing assistance and the other types of housing stabilization services MCCAC and its partner organizations offer. Stabilizing the region’s shelter and rapid rehousing system are priorities for the Mid-Columbia Houseless Collaborative, which MCCAC co-founded last year with Washington Gorge Action Programs and nearly 40 other partner organizations and local governments from Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Klickitat, and Skamania Counties.

“Following the first full year when MCCAC has paired our operations of the non-congregate shelter in The Dalles with a robust rapid rehousing program and wraparound resource navigation, it was heartening to see that Wasco County’s houseless population has decreased when we reviewed the 2023 PIT Count numbers,” said Kelli Horvath, MCCAC’s Director of the Office of Housing Stabilization. “That decrease is likely a combination of increased investment in shelter and other services, along with one of our PIT Count partner organizations having reduced staff capacity to assist with the 2023 PIT Count. Either way, we are evaluating the interventions we’ve enhanced in Wasco County recently so we can apply what we learn to the work we do with our partners throughout the rest of the Mid-Columbia Houseless Collaborative.

MCCAC and other partner organizations in the Mid-Columbia Houseless Collaborative also hope to use 2023 PIT Count data to enhance the approach to the Collaborative’s other priorities, such as addressing gaps in the region’s behavioral health system and ensuring an equitable approach to serving diverse communities experiencing houselessness.

The 2023 PIT Count data for Hood River, Wasco, and Sherman Counties shows increases across the board in the number of houseless individuals who are experiencing substance abuse disorders or mental illness, particularly among the unsheltered population.

“The enhanced work to coordinate shelter services with wraparound housing stabilization services has made a positive impact on houselessness in our region, especially Wasco County where MCCAC has scaled up their services the most over the last year,” said Lane Magill, who serves as Wasco County’s Sheriff and facilitator of the Local Public Safety Coordinating Committee. “Now it’s time to enhance the region’s resources even further—especially in the behavioral health realm—so we can make sure unhoused folks and other members of the community who need more intensive behavioral health interventions can get the support they need. I am proud of the work the Local Public Safety Coordinating Committee has done.”

The preliminary 2023 PIT Count results also underscore the importance of houseless services that address the needs of diverse populations. 2023 PIT Count data shows that Native community members are over-represented in the region’s houseless population compared to the portion of each county’s overall population that they comprise (according to Census data). 2023 PIT Count data also shows a slight increase in the region’s Native houseless population since 2022. MCCAC’s partner organizations in the Mid-Columbia Houseless Collaborative who provide culturally specific and responsive resources, such as Nch’i Wana Housing and The Next Door, Inc., have enhanced services for these populations over recent years, but now face the challenge of how to continue this important work despite recent declines in federal COVID-19 program funding. From MCCAC staff’s initial evaluation of the region’s 2023 PIT Count data, the decreased number of Latinx houseless community members reflected in that data for Wasco County compared to 2022 is an example of the impact the loss of these resources could be having on service providers’ ability to adequately count and serve the region’s diverse houseless population.

Below is a detailed breakdown of the preliminary 2023 Point in Time Count numbers for Hood River, Wasco, and Sherman Counties. MCCAC has also published this preliminary data on the recently launched data and reports page of their website at www.mccac.com/data.

2023 PIT Count for Hood River, Wasco and Sherman Counties (+- from 2022 PIT Count):

• 282 individuals experiencing houselessness (+13)

• 193 Unsheltered (+16)

• 89 Sheltered (-3)

• 70 self-identified as reporting a mental illness (+1)

  • 48 Unsheltered

  • 22 Sheltered

• 45 identified reporting a substance use disorder (+3)

  • 32 Unsheltered

  • 13 Sheltered

• 51 self-identified as experiencing both a mental illness and substance use disorder

  • 36 Unsheltered

  • 15 Sheltered

• 27 Veterans (+13)

• 47 Children and Youth under the age of 24 (+24)

• Race/Ethnicity

• 196 White People 

• 33 American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous (+3) 

• 20 Latinx Community Members (-22) 

• 18 People of Color and People who Identify as Mixed Race/Ethnicity (-7)  

• 15 People Who Refused to answer this question

By County:

Hood River County

• 111 individuals experiencing houselessness (+40)

• 66 Unsheltered (+31)

• 45 Sheltered (+9)

• 33 self-identified as reporting a mental illness (+18)

  • 23 Unsheltered

  • 10 Sheltered

• 17 identified reporting a substance use disorder (+10)

  • 10 Unsheltered

  • 7 Sheltered

• 13 self-identified as experiencing both a mental illness and substance use disorder

  • 6 Unsheltered

  • 7 Sheltered

• 8 Veterans (+5)

• 11 Children and Youth under the age of 24 (+7)

• Race/Ethnicity

  • 77 White People 

  • 13 American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous (+-0) 

  • 11 Latinx Community Members (+1) 

  • 8 People of Color and People who Identify as Mixed Race/Ethnicity (+2)  

  • 2 People Who Refused to answer this question

Wasco County

• 160 individuals experiencing houselessness (-34)

• 116 Unsheltered (-22)

• 44 Sheltered (-12)

• 35 self-identified as reporting a mental illness (-19)

  • 23 Unsheltered

  • 12 Sheltered

• 22 identified reporting a substance use disorder (-12)

  • 16 Unsheltered

  • 6 Sheltered

• 35 self-identified as experiencing both a mental illness and substance use disorder

  • 27 Unsheltered

  • 8 Sheltered

• 17 Veterans (+8)

• 35 Children and Youth under the age of 24 (+16)

• Race/Ethnicity

  • 112 White People 

  • 17 American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous (+1) 

  • 9 Latinx Community Members (-23) 

  • 9 People of Color and People who Identify as Mixed Race/Ethnicity (-10)  

  • 13 People Who Refused to answer this question

Sherman County

• 11 individuals experiencing houselessness (+7)

• 11 Unsheltered (+7)

• 0 Sheltered (+-0)

• 2 self-identified as reporting a mental illness (+2)

  • 2 Unsheltered

  • 0 Sheltered

• 6 identified reporting a substance use disorder (+5)

  • 6 Unsheltered

  • 0 Sheltered

• 3 self-identified as experiencing both a mental illness and substance use disorder

  • 3 Unsheltered

  • 0 Sheltered

• 2 Veterans (+-0)

• 1 Children and Youth under the age of 24 (+1)

• Race/Ethnicity

  • 7 White People 

  • 3 American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous (+2) 

  • 0 Latinx Community Members (+-0) 

  • 1 Person of Color also Identified as Mixed Race/Ethnicity (+1)  

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MCCAC is the Community Action Agency serving Hood River, Wasco and Sherman Counties. MCCAC’s mission is to build a better future for our community through partnership and equity-centered programs that prevent and eliminate poverty and houselessness.