Spending on homelessness wildly spikes to over half a BILLION in Portland metro area

Local governments and nonprofits in the Portland area spent more than half a billion dollars fighting homelessness last year, a 70% increase from the year before, according to a new report.

"The number itself was shocking," John Tapogna, a senior policy advisor at ECOnorthwest, which crunched the numbers, told KOIN 6 News.

Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, which make up Oregon's Portland metro area, spent $531 million on homelessness interventions in fiscal year 2023, according to ECOnorthwest's analysis.

The huge increase was driven in part by nearly $90 million in federal pandemic relief funds, as well as a regional homeless tax approved by voters in 2020, the report shows.