Research

For the first time, statewide eviction data are being collected, analyzed, and shared publicly on two new websites. A team of researchers, led by Dr. Lisa K. Bates at the PSU Center for Urban Studies, is compiling and analyzing eviction records and making it available for the public, housing advocates and policymakers.

The Knowledge Base/Research Resources Repository is intended to serve as an online repository of academic research, policy briefs and other information on best practices and policies in addressing homelessness.

The goal of this project is to identify core components of culturally-specific permanent supportive housing and the contextual factors that support or inhibit its implementation.

This project will provide context and additional information to understand the factors influencing/determining the most commonly observed pathways from homelessness to housing identified in prior studies.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires communities that receive Continuum of Care (CoC) funding to conduct a Point in Time Count (PITC). HRAC worked with Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties to conduct a coordinated PITC in 2025.

Portland State University’s Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative (PSU-HRAC) is working with Oregon Housing and Community Services to evaluate the alternative emergency shelter model called Project Turnkey. This model utilized motels for temporary shelter across the state of Oregon during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Public transportation provides instrumental community connection, access to job and educational opportunities, and benefits individual’s health and well-being. However, there is a dearth of research assessing the connection between transportation and homelessness. This project examined reduced-fare programs.

This project studied the cost, participant experiences, and client outcomes in village and motel shelters across Portland as compared to each other and to congregate shelters. 

HRAC supported Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) as they become the statewide Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS) administrator using a data lake system. 

HRAC assisted the City of Portland with the design and evaluation of a new program to provide laundry services to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Such programs have an important, positive impact on physical and mental health. 

The purpose of this project is to study and make recommendations on the implementation of a regional housing needs analysis into state and local planning programs, especially as they relate to community engagement and housing for people experiencing homelessness. 

Transit agencies are being impacted by homelessness. While transit agencies cannot address the underlying causes of homelessness, there are opportunities to work with local partners to be a part of helping individuals in need, while providing a safe, reliable, and customer-friendly experience for all riders.

HRAC worked with Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) to develop a statewide estimate of sheltered and unsheltered homelessness in Oregon for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Researchers worked with Street Roots advocacy newspaper for those experiencing homelessness to examine the impact language has to shape opinions. The ways in which we talk about issues greatly impacts the ways communities define problems, and the actions they think will make the best solutions.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires communities that receive Continuum of Care (CoC) funding to conduct a Point in Time (PIT) Count. Starting in 2023 Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties worked to conduct a Tri-County coordinated PIT Count to fulfill this requirement.

This project helped build a new knowledge base for generating and advocating for community-driven solutions for renter stability. The project accelerated and expanded existing partnerships with the Community Alliance of Tenants to create a research justice framework as part of long-standing community organizing and education efforts.

Research demonstrates that marginalized populations experience significant barriers in accessing transit. Much research related to marginalized populations focuses on fares, costs, and locations to utilizing transit. More recent studies look at how transgender and gender-nonconforming community members experience discrimination.

Medically complex patients experiencing homelessness may be good candidates for interdisciplinary provider teams with low patient-staff ratios and additional resources such as case managers. This study tracked health-care outcomes for those receiving these supports.

The purpose of this program evaluation was to: determine the overall effectiveness of the PSR pilot program, provide suggestions for program refinement and adaptation throughout the pilot year, and provide recommendations for scaling PSR up city-wide at the end of the pilot. 

Several airports have taken varying approaches in response to homelessness on their properties. These approaches include partnering with community organizations to conduct outreach and connect people experiencing homelessness with services and housing, closing the airport overnight, and distributing bus tickets.

Stable and appropriate housing is recognized as an essential element in health and well-being, and is increasingly being explored by health organizations as an important part of their services. Health Share of Oregon has launched a Medicaid housing benefit for people at risk of homelessness following their release from treatment.

HRAC worked with the City of Portland and Multnomah County to study hygiene, waste, and storage needs and options for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the city.

A team of HRAC researchers evaluated the “village” model as an alternative approach to shelter for people experiencing homelessness. One key finding: Most neighbors who reported concerns at first did not have concerns after living near a village. Village residents also rated villages highly overall.

This collaborative storytelling project changes the narrative around homelessness through ethnographic cartooning focused on the experiences of Portland State students. This project resulted in a series of ten short comics created through collaborations between PSU students and local artists. 

Dr. Lisa K. Bates evaluated the effectiveness of Oregon’s eviction diversion program, which was implemented in July 2021 to help tenants maintain housing during the pandemic. One key finding is that only 27% of tenants with nonpayment eviction cases got the ‘safe harbor’ setover.

Older adults with low incomes face several challenges to maintaining stable, affordable housing. Using data from a previous explanatory study of older adults waitlisted for housing assistance, we explore individual characteristics and themes associated with older adults’ perceived housing instability and risk of future homelessness.

Health Share contracted with Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative and Providence CORE to answer the question: What does it look like for homelessness research and evaluation practices to be centered on or rooted in racial equity and people who have lived experience with homelessness?

Stories from the Outside centers the voices of people experiencing homelessness during the 2020 Oregon wildfire season. PSU’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, in partnership with the Street Roots Ambassadors program, surveyed 73 people in the Portland area in June 2021.

As the eviction moratoriums were set to expire in 2021, HRAC calculated the downstream cost of evictions in Feb and June. Researchers estimated that the cost of mass evictions could reach as high as $4.7 billion in Oregon. Recommendations included fully funding rent supports to meet the scale of the need.

The delays in building affordable housing that come from homeowner opposition is one important driver of homelessness. The modeling predicts which households are likely to oppose a project which can give project proponents the ability to recruit neighborhood champions (supporters) who can communicate with predicted opponents.

HRAC worked with the Joint Office of Homeless Services, Shannon Singleton, and Street Roots to survey people who are living unsheltered to better understand what’s working and what’s not with a focus of people of color. Photo Credit: Street Roots.

HRAC faculty member Dr. Lisa Bates partnered with Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) in a survey on housing insecurity among Oregon renters during COVID-19. The results show that 56% of renters of color surveyed owe back rent that they are unable to pay and 35% of all renters owe back rent that they cannot pay.

HRAC conducted a survey of PSU students and employees to determine the scope of housing insecurity, food insecurity, and homelessness. This survey was one of the first of its kind in the nation to include university employees not just students. The highest rates of need were among students and employees of color. 

In this survey, we asked about a variety of potential options for temporary shelter/housing, as well as the level of services people would like to be attached to these options. We also asked people where they live right now, along with some demographic questions focused on marginalized social identities. Photo Credit: Street Roots.

This 2019 report estimated about 38,000 people experienced homelessness in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties in 2017. It also showed that 107,039 households were housing insecure or at risk of homelessness. People of Color are disproportionately impacted by homelessness and risk of homelessness.

This report summarizes findings from a set of interviews designed to inform the design of Portland's proposed Street Response pilot in collaboration with Street Roots, Sisters of the Road, Right 2 Survive, Street Books, the Mapping Action Collective, Yellow Brick Road, and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s staff.

The Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative helps students hone their skills to become the next generation of thinkers to solve homelessness. Our students explore topics ranging from the history of housing policies to a case study in financing multi-family housing in urban areas with units prioritized for indigenous families.

FUSE studies examine the top 1% of those frequenting ER and jails, many of whom experience homelessness. This study, done in collaboration with Regional Research Institute for Housing, shows the costs and potential savings in Clackamas County to invest in more effective approaches such as intensive case management and housing.