REDMOND — Homelessness in central Oregon is finally on a decline following years of steady increase, a milestone housing advocates, state lawmakers and Gov. Tina Kotek celebrated Monday.
Nearly 1,700 individuals experienced homelessness across three central Oregon counties in 2026, a 19.1% drop from about 2,100 people in 2025, according to the Homeless Leadership Coalition’s point-in-time count.
The point-in-time count is a federally mandated survey counties are required to submit to the federal government to qualify for funding. It’s an imperfect snapshot of what homelessness looks like, and it requires volunteers and housing advocates to count the number of homeless people sleeping on the streets or in shelters on a single night in January.
“Homelessness is a challenge as complex as the people experiencing it, and there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution,” Kotek said in a statement. “The progress we’re seeing in central Oregon is a direct result of a community-wide commitment to tackling this challenge.”
Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, the central Oregon-based Housing Leadership Coalition surveyed people living on the streets or in shelters across Jefferson, Crook and Deschutes counties, including people on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, asking them where they slept the night of Jan. 26.
Nearly 300 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the region in 2025 were rehoused the next year, the survey found.
Central Oregon’s drop in homelessness, however, contradicts with what happened statewide last year.
A new report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development shows Oregon saw an 18.9% increase in people who experienced homelessness between 2024 and 2025.
More than 27,200 people were homeless across Oregon on a single night in January in 2025, about 4,600 more than in 2024.
Nearly 1,040 individuals experienced homelessness in Deschutes County in 2025, according to the data. There were 864 in 2026. While still high, local housing advocates celebrated the turning point.
Kotek, who is running for reelection in November, said she and lawmakers are doing everything they can to solve the homelessness crisis, adding that she spearheaded efforts to increase housing access to unsheltered seniors.
“I need the Legislature to be more serious than they already are about the eviction prevention work and the rehousing piece,” she said, noting that she expects a tough budget environment for lawmakers in the 2027 legislative session. “We can maintain the shelters, but if we can keep people from having to need a shelter, or help people get into more permanent housing, that is going to be important.”
Housing advocates attribute decline to state investments
Housing advocates attributed the region’s decline in homelessness to housing investments under Kotek.
On her first day of office, Kotek signed three executive orders declaring Oregon in state of emergency because of unsheltered homelessness. The orders aimed to boost housing production and improve coordination between state agencies and localities.
Kotek has since extended the state of emergency twice, including in January when she ordered state agencies to use $20 million in legislative funds to support permanent housing, expand behavioral health capacity and improve coordination between housing and health care systems in regions that experienced a 50% or more increase in homelessness between 2017 and 2022. That included parts of the Portland region, central Oregon and Clatsop, Jackson, Lane, Linn, Malheur, Marion and Polk counties.
The emergency actions have resulted in nearly 6,300 new shelter beds, 5,500 people rehoused from unsheltered homelessness and homelessness prevention assistance for about 26,000 households, according to the governor’s office.
“These critical resources arrived at a time when we needed them the most and allowed us to leverage additional local, state, and federal funding to maximize our collective impact,” said Eliza Wilson, coalition chair and executive director of Bend-based housing nonprofit RootedHomes.
Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler recalled that the city barely had an overnight shelter when she was first elected onto the city council in 2021.
“Now, we have over 500 beds, and that is directly the result of local leadership partnered with state leadership,” Kebler said. “Cities cannot do it ourselves, but neither can the state, because we are the folks on the ground knowing what our community needs.”
For the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, state investments over the past three years have assisted the tribe in expanding tribal members’ access to hygiene amenities, tiny huts and an indoor dining room to keep them warm or cool from central Oregon’s unpredictable weather.
Caroline Cruz, the chief operation officer of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, said the tribes rely on what she calls “braided funding,” or funding from the state, local and federal government, and a public transportation partnership with Cascadia Transit Program.
Most people experiencing homelessness in central Oregon are longtime locals
Housing affordability in Central Oregon is a key contributor to the region’s homelessness, she said.
Single adults made up 84% of households experiencing homelessness in central Oregon, followed by 7% families, 5% youth between ages 18 to 24, and 4% of youth in that same age range who are raising children.
Half of the people surveyed said they’ve lived in central Oregon for over 10 years. More than 75% have lived in the region for at least the last three years.
In Deschutes County, where most people experiencing homelessness in the region live, the median cost of a home is $675,000, according to Redfin, a real estate platform. That’s nearly $150,000 more than the median cost of a home in all of Oregon.
Most people surveyed cited economic struggles as their reason for being homeless, followed by personal issues, eviction, domestic violence, substance abuse, legal struggles and health reasons.
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