As local governments and service providers search for the most effective ways to support people experiencing homelessness, a new report from Portland State University centers problem solving on the experience of those navigating homelessness.
Prepared by faculty from PSU’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC) and the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health for the Multnomah County Homeless Services Department, the "Pathways" study aims to answer a critical question: What is the most effective way to support people experiencing homelessness? Together with people who have lived experience, researchers spent nearly 10 months surveying 541 individuals experiencing homelessness to better understand how they navigate their daily lives, the challenges they face and the solutions they actually want.
"This is about more than just collecting data — it’s about giving a voice to people whose experiences are often overlooked, misunderstood or spoken about instead of listened to," shared the Transformational Research for Equity and Experience in Shelter (TREES) committee, a group of people with lived experience of homelessness who guided the study. "It’s important to give those who are experiencing homelessness the opportunity to be a part of the conversations that shape the systems meant to support them."
The resulting report paints a clear picture: people experiencing homelessness overwhelmingly want permanent housing and face significant affordability barriers to getting and keeping it.
“The Pathways Study is a groundbreaking research project for our community. The survey findings shared in the first report of the two part study continue to demonstrate that people want permanent and stable housing,” said Marisa Zapata, director of HRAC. “We hope the data helps local governments, nonprofit organizations and advocates determine which work to continue, improve upon, or move away from as they support people experiencing homelessness to reach their housing goal.”
Notably, the study found that whether people flow between being unsheltered, sheltered, or doubled up housing, their needs and experiences remain strikingly similar.
“Many people that we surveyed told us no one had ever asked these questions before,” said Kathleen Conte, lead investigator and assistant professor in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. “By working with TREES to get the questions and interpretation right, we are proud of the quality of this work and hopeful that people will carefully consider the messages and implications that our participants took the time to share.”
Key Takeaways
- The drive for permanent housing: An overwhelming 98% of participants want permanent housing. They prioritize housing that is affordable and meets basic needs for safety, shelter, hygiene and sustenance, while also allowing family and friends to visit. This desire was reiterated consistently across all subpopulations.
- System instability and displacement: Participants reported moving where they slept an average of 5.6 times in the last 6 to 12 months. They report moving between shelters, sleeping unsheltered, or sleeping with friends or family (e.g. doubled up). Furthermore, of the 160 people who shared they had been impacted by an involuntary displacement (commonly referred to as sweeps), 48% had been impacted more than 10 times.
- Understanding differences: While nearly all respondents report urgent financial needs, their paths into and out of homelessness vary significantly by demographic. For example, women reported domestic or intimate partner violence as a cause of homelessness at higher rates than men.
- Meeting basic needs: As a service, food access was reported to be the most helpful and most used. Other helpful services focus on hygiene and accessing government benefits, but legal assistance and help with securing employment remain unmet needs.
- Stability in housing: Of the small subset of participants who successfully moved from homelessness into housing in the last 12 months, about 80% report feeling stable. The majority of this group shared that the most productive resource to assist them was good case management.
Collectively, the Pathways findings emphasize that people experiencing homelessness know what they need: housing and the support to maintain it. While the survey responses highlight the severe challenges of accessing effective services, they also reflect where interventions — like targeted case management and basic hygiene access — are working well.
“While we see powerful examples of services that work, the reality is that many people experiencing homelessness are navigating a system that feels disconnected and difficult to manage,” Conte said. “This report highlights a clear need not just for more resources, but for a more compassionate integration of the policies we already have. We must stop making it harder for people to get the help they already know they need.”
A further report expanding on these findings, which will incorporate deeper qualitative interview data, is scheduled for release later this summer.