LA GRANDE — The annual tally of people who are homeless has a focus in 2025 on youth.

This year’s Point-In-Time count is Wednesday, Jan. 29, and agencies that provide services to the homeless are preparing.

Community Connection of Northeast Oregon oversees the Point-in-Time count in Baker, Grant, Union and Wallowa counties, while Community Action Program of East Central Oregon conducts the count in Umatilla and Morrow counties. The two organizations are working with local school districts to better include homeless youth in the count.

“This year there is a push to include a homeless youth count,” Union County Senior Center Manager Rochelle Hamilton said.

She said the Point-in-Time effort is critical in part because funding for programs to address homelessness depends on the annual tally.

“An accurate PIT count gives us the evidence we need to advocate for more robust policies and solutions that can lead to lasting change,” she said.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that across the country families with children had the largest single-year increase in homelessness — a 39% increase from the year prior.

During the annual tally last year, Oregon counted 3,952 people in families with children experiencing homelessness. Of those families, 56% were unsheltered the night of the count. This means they were staying in places not meant for human habitation, such as sidewalks, abandoned buildings, bus stations or cars, rather than in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs on the night of the count.

Only four states had more than 25% of families unsheltered the night of the county — Oregon at 56%, Idaho at 54%, Alabama at 48% and Tennessee at 32%.

CAPECO Program Director Claudia Limon said it can be hard to get an accurate count of young people who are experiencing homelessness or whose families are homeless. However, school districts do have methods to keep people’s identities confidential while still getting the data.

“I think we’ll be a little more successful this year with that information,” she said. “We try to give multiple ways to do this kind of work.”

Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, school districts can provide resources for students experiencing homelessness.

Scott Carpenter, La Grande School District assistant superintendent, said the program aims to remove barriers to education or full participation within school programming.

“It’s really targeted about what helps them to access school,” he said.

Students are eligible if they lack a fixed, regular, nighttime or adequate place of residence. This includes living in a shelter, motel, campground, car, bus or train station, park, abandoned building or doubled up with another person due to loss of housing or economic hardship.

Hermiston School District Superintendent Tricia Mooney explained students are identified for the McKinney-Vento program in several ways, including through the enrollment process or conversations with the school. She said the district has noted how economic challenges and housing shortages can lead to more students facing homelessness.

“Homelessness touches every part of a student’s life,” Mooney said.

From a social perspective, Mooney said, students may feel isolated or different from their peers, which can impact their overall confidence and mental health. Academically, these students might struggle with missed school days or have trouble focusing due to stress and uncertainty.

Carpenter expressed similar sentiments — especially in regard to how homelessness can affect student attendance.

“It impacts attendance in terms of could you sleep last night? Did you have a warm place to go? If they are limited by transportation or the transportation they have suddenly breaks down — there’s some attendance impact,” Carpenter said. “Anytime attendance is impacted, we see the grades are impacted.”

Mooney said these students often face barriers that compound the challenges they are facing, such as transportation, inconsistent access to food or difficulty focusing due to their living situation.

The superintendents described the situation as heartbreaking.

“I want to emphasize that homelessness doesn’t define a student or their future,” Mooney said. “Many of these young people are incredibly resilient, and with the right support, they can thrive.”

Support can make a big difference, Carpenter said, pointing out last year the district’s four-year graduation rate for the class of 2024 for students experiencing homelessness was 100%.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure that they don’t fall through the cracks, that we’re in communication with those families and helping to support students and families to meet their needs,” he said.

While the school district tracks student homelessness separately from the Point-in-Time count, Carpenter said the district shares the overall number of students experiencing homelessness with Community Connection, so they can be included in the count without being identified.

Running resource fairs

Community Connection of Northeast Oregon also holds annual houseless resource fairs when it conducts the counts.

At each of the resource fairs, all scheduled for Jan. 29, Community Connection will be providing free hot lunches and handing out supplies, including backpacks, sleeping bags, coats and hygiene items.

The fairs are not only a chance to distribute supplies and some hot food, but also provide opportunities to connect people who are experiencing homelessness with community resources. Representatives from a variety of organizations set up tables and are available to talk during the fairs.

This year in Union County, Hamilton said the organization has invited local law enforcement, the fire department and the hospital, as these agencies often interact with those experiencing homelessness and can help spread the word about the fair.

Going out to count

While most of Northeastern Oregon offers a centralized resource fair to conduct the count, Umatilla and Morrow counties send volunteers into the community. Volunteers and community partners go in pairs or small groups to locations where CAPECO is aware people congregate when they’re experiencing homelessness.

Limon said crews will be going out in Pendleton, Milton-Freewater and Hermiston on Jan. 29 and 30, and around Morrow County on Jan. 30. Participants will be asked where they are sleeping — or slept — the night of Jan. 29.

“I think it’s important for our volunteers and our staff to see it, to get out there and really see the nitty-gritty of what we’re working with on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “It’s not pretty, but this is reality, and I think sometimes all of us can forget the reality of it.”

Additionally, she said, it can be hard for people living on the outskirts of a community to get to a central location on the right day and at the right time. And in Umatilla and Morrow counties, populations are spread so far apart geographically it is easier to go to them than to get them to go to one central spot.

Umatilla County, in particular, has quite a few cities compared to other parts of Eastern Oregon as well as the region’s largest population with about 82,000 residents, so just one resource fair for the county would be likely to severely undercount the county’s homeless population. Counting crews will, however, still check in at shelters to make sure people staying overnight to get out of the cold are also counted.

“If we can meet them where they’re at and not have to add another barrier to them, let’s do that,” Limon said. “Homelessness looks so different in urban areas versus rural Oregon — we have a lot more space for people to hide.”

She said it’s “not an impossible mission” to conduct the count, but everyone involved understands that the number is “never going to be 100%.”

The resource fairs for Baker, Grant, Union and Wallowa counties will be Wednesday, Jan. 29, with free hot lunches and supplies including backpacks, sleeping bags, coats and hygiene items.

In Umatilla County, there will be a booth on Jan. 30, with warm drinks, pastries and bags with snacks, some hygiene items, hats, gloves and socks.

Baker County

Noon to 4 p.m.

2810 Cedar St., Baker City

Have questions? Can’t make it? Call 541-523-6591.

Grant County

11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

142 NE Dayton St., John Day

Free transportation options are available from the People Mover. Call 541-575-2370 for routes and times.

Have questions? Can’t make it? Call 541-575-2949.

Umatilla County

Jan. 30, 8-11:30 a.m.

211 SE Byers Ave., Pendleton

Have questions? Can’t make it? Call 541-240-7240.

Union County

2-4 p.m.

1504 N. Albany St., La Grande

Free transportation is available. Call 541-963-2877.

Have questions? Can’t make it? Call 541-963-7532.

Wallowa County

2-4 p.m.

702 NW First St., Enterprise

Free transportation is available. Call 541-426-3840.

Have questions? Can’t make it? Call 541-426-3840.

Once a year, on a cold night in January, an important count takes places.

Community organizations across the state and nation take part in the Point-in-Time count — an annual tally of the people experiencing homelessness on one specific night. This year’s count is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 29, and agencies that provide services to the homeless are gearing up in preparation.

A federal report released at the end of 2024 established Oregon has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found 22,875 of Oregon’s residents experienced homelessness last year, which was a 13.6% increase from 2023. Nationally, the number of homeless people reported on the night of the count in 2024 was 771,480 — an all-time high.

Information from the count can help policymakers determine how to funnel funds to programs to address homelessness.

Oregon was one of the top five states with the largest increase from 2023 to 2024 in individuals experiencing homelessness and individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness. The number of individuals experiencing homelessness was up by 2,681 — a 16.5% increase — while the number of individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness was up 1,423 — a 22.6% increase.