With Oregon’s homelessness crisis continuing, Gov. Kotek extends state of emergency
By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Thursday continued the homelessness state of emergency she declared on her first day in office for a third year as the state continues to grapple with the crisis of thousands of people living outside.
Kotek’s executive order follows confirmation in a federal report released in the last week of 2024 that confirmed Oregon has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual point in time count, conducted in January 2024, found 22,875 of Oregon’s roughly 4.2 million residents experienced homelessness. About 62% of those individuals lacked shelter.
The federal report confirms that Oregon, like 42 other states, experienced an increase in homelessness between 2023 and 2024 — despite record sums and attention being paid by state officials to shelter more people, help homeless people find housing and keep people living in precarious situations from losing their homes.
Lawmakers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in housing and homelessness in recent years, and Kotek’s 2025-27 budget proposal includes $700 million intended to shelter homeless Oregonians and keep them from falling into homelessness, as well as about $1.4 billion in bonds and infrastructure funding to help the state build its way out of a decades-long housing shortage.
Kotek said in a statement Thursday that the state is seeing progress. While the total number of homeless Oregonians increased between January 2023 and January 2024, her office and Oregon Housing and Community Services estimate that by the end of June the state will have funded 5,500 shelter beds, helped 3,300 families experiencing homelessness back into housing and prevented 24,000 households from becoming homeless.
“We must stay the course on what we see working. If we keep at this pace, one in every three people who were experiencing homelessness in 2023 will be rehoused,” Kotek said in the 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. But the urgency remains as homelessness continues to increase and we need to see this strategy through.”
Extending the emergency order gives Kotek’s office and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management more flexibility to coordinate state agencies, employees and equipment to address the homelessness crisis. Her executive order also directs Oregon Housing and Community Services to set up a statewide homelessness response system to continue coordinating with local governments and community service providers after the emergency ends.
Housing Executive Director Andrea Bell said Kotek entered office recognizing that the state needed to act quickly and boldly.
“This work is and has always been about people and making their life better. This starts with supporting and empowering local leaders to do what they do best — deliver for community,” Bell said. “So much depends on what we, the generations now in positions of responsibility, choose to do in this moment. Building a future that includes and works for everyone is possible when we recognize the scale of our challenges and bring an even greater scale of ambition in confronting them.”
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Gov. Kotek's news release:
Governor Kotek Extends Homelessness Emergency Executive Order
Statewide homeless response infrastructure on track to provide 1 bed for every 3 people experiencing homelessness in 2023
Salem, OR — Today, Governor Tina Kotek extended Emergency Order 24-02 in order to continue to address the crisis of unsheltered homelessness in Oregon. EO 25-01 directs state agencies to continue reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness in Oregon. In tandem with other executive actions, this executive order establishes and maintains a homeless response infrastructure to address the homelessness crisis, even after the state of emergency has ended.
“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,” Governor Kotek said. “Since declaring the homelessness emergency response two years ago, we exceeded the targets we set through a statewide homelessness infrastructure we never had before. But the urgency remains as homelessness continues to increase and we need to see this strategy through.”
The Governor extended the emergency response to have the flexibility to sustain the system needed to reduce homelessness and determine the outcomes of the work that will continue through the end of the current biennium, which ends in June 2025.
“Governor Kotek came in with clear eyed recognition that the state needed to act quickly and boldly,” OHCS Executive Director Andrea Bell said. “This work is and has always been about people and making their life better. This starts with supporting and empowering local leaders to do what they do best—deliver for community. So much depends on what we, the generations now in positions of responsibility, choose to do in this moment. Building a future that includes and works for everyone is possible when we recognize the scale of our challenges and bring an even greater scale of ambition in confronting them.”
Since taking office, the Governor has taken consistent action to address homelessness in Oregon. On her very first day in office, January 10, 2023, she issued EO 23-02, declaring a statewide homelessness emergency and called on the legislature to take immediate action to fund her emergency order. The legislature answered her call and less than 60 days later, she signed the $155 million Homelessness Emergency Response Package. Contracts were executed less than two weeks later, and dollars were disseminated shortly thereafter. That summer, the Governor signed SB 5511 into law, which included resources to continue operations established under the homelessness state of emergency and expand statewide efforts to reduce and prevent homelessness for the 2023-2025 biennium.
In spring of 2024, Governor Kotek Signed SB 1530 into law, which included additional resources to stabilize and expand existing shelters statewide and eviction and homelessness prevention services for the 2023-2025 biennium. That summer, Governor Kotek partnered with Representative Pam Marsh to convene a Sustainable Shelter Work Group with the objective of developing recommendations to establish an ongoing shelter program for the State of Oregon.
Last December, Governor Kotek released her Governor’s Recommended Budget for the 2025-2027 biennium which included the resources needed to maintain current service levels for statewide homelessness response efforts, including those established through the emergency response. Later that month, Governor Kotek received the recommendations report from the Sustainable Shelter Work Group and stated her intent to introduce an ongoing shelter program in the 2025 Legislative Session for the 2025-2027 biennium.
As a result of funding and actions taken since the initial emergency declaration in Executive Order 23-02, as of January 9, 2025, the emergency response outcomes of establishing 600 new low barrier shelter beds, rehousing 1,200 households experiencing unsheltered homelessness, and preventing 8,750 households from experiencing homelessness in Emergency Areas have been exceeded.
In addition, as of January 9, 2025, preliminary estimates indicated that the Balance of State outcomes of establishing 100 new low barrier shelter beds and rehousing 450 households experiencing unsheltered homelessness will be exceeded by the outcome deadline of June 30, 2025.
Moreover, with the broader actions taken as a part of the Governor’s statewide homelessness response effort, including the emergency response, preliminary projections indicate that by the end of the 2023-2025 biennium 5,500 shelter beds will be funded by the State of Oregon, 3,300 households will be rehoused, and 24,000 households will have been prevented from experiencing homelessness.
Taken in combination with the Governor Kotek’s Recommended Budget for the 2025-2027 biennium, if funded, the statewide homelessness response infrastructure will be established. This infrastructure will provide nearly 1 bed for every 3 people that were experiencing unsheltered homelessness when the emergency was declared in Executive Order 23-02. It is also projected that with this infrastructure, by the end of the 2025-2027 biennium over 1 in 3 people that were experiencing homelessness when the emergency was declared in Executive Order 23-02 will be rehoused – equivalent to the increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness from 2017 to 2023.
EO 25-01 is effective immediately and shall remain in effect until January 10, 2026, unless extended or terminated earlier by the Governor.
