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<br />1 <br /> <br />1. Background <br />In March of 2018, Lane County secured the services of the Technical Assistance Collaborative <br />(TAC) to conduct a public shelter feasibility study. As part of the study, TAC was to assess the <br />current homeless service system within Lane County including resource capacity and gaps <br />within various system components such as Coordinated Entry, Diversion, Outreach, Day Shelter, <br />Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Rapid-Rehousing, and Permanent Supportive Housing. <br />Since that time, TAC has conducted a comprehensive review of Lane County’s homeless service <br />system through multiple activities that have included: <br /> <br />• Onsite and offsite meetings with staff from Lane County and the City of Eugene <br />• Onsite and phone interviews with provider agency staff including emergency shelter <br />providers, housing providers, advocates, consumers, and other community stakeholders <br />• Analysis of HMIS reports, Coordinated Entry data, System Performance Measures, Point- <br />in-Time Counts and the Housing Inventory Chart <br />A list of all agencies and providers interviewed as part of this study is included in Appendix A. <br /> <br />2. Summary & Overview <br />The following information provided in this summary outlines TAC’s initial observations and <br />preliminary recommendations regarding shelter feasibility. While emergency shelter plays a <br />crucial role in addressing a person’s immediate housing crisis needs, it is important to note that <br />shelter alone cannot be a community’s singular strategy to ending homelessness. Shelter is one <br />of a number of interventions needed and a community is most successful at reducing or ending <br />homelessness when all housing and service interventions are working as a coordinated system. <br />For this reason, many of the observations and recommendations outlined here relate to <br />system-wide capacity across all system components. <br /> <br />This initial summary focuses on single adults who are homeless as this is the most significant <br />challenge facing the County. The final report will address other homeless populations including <br />youth, victims of domestic violence and families. <br /> <br />3. Lane County Homeless Single Adults <br />The 2018 Point-In-Time (PIT) Count identified a total of 1,641 persons experiencing <br />homelessness within Lane County. 1,365 of these persons were single adults representing 83% <br />of the overall homeless population. 1,009 of these single adults were in unsheltered locations <br />(e.g. on the streets, living in vehicles, etc.) accounting for 89% of the unsheltered population. <br />Compared to national data, Lane County has a much higher incidence of homelessness amongst <br />single adults. Nationally, 67% of the overall homeless population is single adults and 33% are <br />people in families1. A closer look at this population indicates that many are chronically <br />homeless, have a serious mental illness, a substance use disorder and/or are veterans. <br /> <br />1 2017 AHAR <br />October 10, 2018, Joint City-County Work Session – Item 1