Rural counties see the greatest increase, with 73 percent living unsheltered in those areas
Homelessness among military veterans has increased 9 percent in Oregon since 2017, with 1,363 veterans experiencing homelessness across the state, according to data released from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development earlier this month.
Oregon continues to have the third-highest percentage of homeless veterans that are unsheltered, with 55 percent sleeping outdoors in 2018. Nationally, 38 percent of America’s 37,878 veterans experiencing homelessness were counted as unsheltered during the Point in Time Count in January.
Oregon’s rural continuums of care saw the greatest increase in homelessness among veterans, jumping from 379 in last year’s count to 474 this year.
Homeless veterans in rural Oregon counties now outnumber homeless veterans in Multnomah County, which saw an increase of just two, up to 448.
There are several reasons veterans may gravitate to rural areas, said Gus Bedwell, the state’s veteran housing integrator.
He said many veterans living in rural areas camp, considering themselves nomadic rather than homeless.
“They watch the weather and go to different locations, but they’re trying to live off the grid because of their experiences in the military and they don’t necessarily want to live in a dense population,” Bedwell said.
This is consistent with HUD’s data, which indicated 73 percent of homeless veterans living in Oregon’s rural counties are unsheltered.
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Oregon also has an population of veterans older than the national average, with more than half older than 60.
“What that means,” Bedwell said, “is you have a high number of veterans that are Vietnam veterans, and they may or may not be combat veterans, but they all came home to pretty much the same experience, and that is not a very ‘welcome home’ environment. They may not want to be engaging in society or letting people know they were in the military because of that.”
Bedwell was hired in July to help regional service providers better coordinate among themselves to house homeless veterans in their areas.
It’s part of a campaign called “Operation Welcome Home,” which will officially launch in Corvallis on Nov. 15.
When voters passed Measure 96 in 2016, they set aside 1.5 percent of state lottery funds to support programs for veterans, budgeted as $14.9 million to the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs in the current biennium.
While much of these funds support services such as suicide prevention, education grants and volunteer programs, in 2017, Oregon lawmakers directed $1.5 million of that lottery revenue for veteran homelessness prevention and housing.
Together, Oregon’s Housing and Community Services and Department of Veterans Affairs are using that money to develop a plan and create infrastructure aimed at housing Oregon’s veterans.
Bedwell’s salary is funded through a portion of this allocation, along with a housing project for veterans in Independence that’s under construction and increases in funding for veterans services at community action agencies.
Operation Welcome Home is a short-term campaign running through May 2019, involving 10 communities chosen to receive intensive assistance and strategy development in their efforts toward ending veteran homelessness.
Bedwell will provide that assistance to those selected communities. He’s an Army veteran with extensive experience working in veterans’ services. This will be his first job directly involving housing programs.
The 10 communities he’ll be working with include a mix of urban and rural regions, with community action agencies serving as the lead organization coordinating with other organizations in their areas. Those selected include Clackamas County Social Services, Oregon Coast Community Action, ACCESS in Jackson County, Yamhill Community Action Partnership, Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agencies, Lane County Human Services Commission, Community Services Consortium serving Benton, Lincoln and Linn counties, and several others.
Bedwell said one of the first things he hopes to accomplish is helping these organizations and others through the process of coming to the table and agreeing upon the work that they’re doing and how they’re going to collaborate and share resources.
“You’ve got a lot of little agencies that are doing really good things, but they’re doing it separate of each other,” he said. “They may know each other, but aren’t doing a lot of the collaborative work that really needs to be done to make these things happen.”
Another challenge in Oregon, Bedwell said, is identifying who among people experiencing homelessness are veterans. He said when social service providers ask “are you a veteran” as opposed to “have you served in the military,” veterans in underserved communities, such as veterans of color, LGBTQ+ and female veterans, are more likely to say no’ even though they’ve served.
Email Senior Staff Reporter Emily Green at emily@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @greenwrites.
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