Annual homeless count complete in Eastern Oregon
By Joe Hathaway on Tuesday, February 6th, 2024 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
EASTERN OREGON — Organizations across Oregon have completed this year’s count of the homeless population.
Called the “Point-In-Time” count, each county in the state and around the nation tries to get a snapshot of the number of houseless people in their communities.
Community Connection of Northeast Oregon (CCNO) is the provider of homelessness services in Baker, Grant, Union and Wallowa counties. To try and get an accurate number of the local homeless population, the organization held Houseless Resources fairs in each of the four counties near the end of January.
CCNO said it counted the population of homeless residents using three methods: Sheltered Survey means they were sheltered at least that night of 1/24/24, the day of the resource fair. Unsheltered Survey means they were not sheltered that night and Unsheltered Observation means they were seen in the community but did not do the surveys.
Here’s the list of Eastern Oregon county’s final tally, provided the CCNO:
Baker – 17
Grant – 31
Harney – 46
Malheur – 359
Umatilla – 169
Union – 57
Wallowa – 4
CCNO says the count is not always accurate, because not everyone wants to be counted. The organization also says that during the resource fairs, they handed out information, food, sleeping bags, tents to those who wanted them. CCNO also worked to connect people with services such as behavioral health help, drug addiction or counseling.
