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<br />2 <br /> <br />Housing & Homelessness in Lane County <br /> <br /> <br />Eugene, like many other cities across the country, is grappling <br />with homelessness and insufficient access to housing. In October <br />2015, the Eugene City Council approved a resolution that <br />recognized the urgency of the housing and homelessness crisis in <br />our community and the need for state assistance to address it. <br /> <br />There are many causes of homelessness. Some of them are: <br /> <br /> Housing costs that are rising faster than wages; <br /> A lack and loss of affordable housing; <br /> Mental health and addiction services that do not meet the <br />need; <br /> Domestic violence; and <br /> Circumstances of personal trauma, abuse and hardship. <br /> <br />Homelessness has significant impacts on the individuals who <br />experience it and on the larger community as well. <br /> <br />While efforts are being made on many fronts to address both the <br />root causes and the consequences of homelessness, the need is <br />still great. There are over a thousand people sleeping <br />unsheltered at night in Lane County. In addition, the graph below <br />illustrates that many in our community are struggling to afford <br />basic needs and may only be a missed paycheck or medical <br />emergency away from potentially losing their housing. <br /> <br />How many households in Lane County are struggling? <br />“ALICE, an acronym for Asset <br />Limited, Income Constrained, <br />Employed are households that <br />earn more than the U.S. poverty <br />level, but less than the basic cost <br />of living for the county. <br />Combined, the number of <br />poverty and ALICE households <br />equal the total population <br />struggling to afford basic needs”.1 <br /> <br />43% of households in Lane County are struggling to afford <br />basic needs. <br /> <br />1 United Ways of the Pacific Northwest. (2015). ALICE Report – Pacific Northwest. <br />UnitedWayALICE.org/PNW. “AT” in the graph refers to ALICE Threshold, the average <br />level of income that a household needs to afford the basics defined by the Household <br />Survival Budget for each county in the Pacific Northwest. <br />By the Numbers <br />1,529 people were counted as <br />homeless in Lane County during <br />the Homeless Point-in-Time Count <br />conducted on January 25, 2017. <br /> <br />Of these: <br />164 were veterans <br />269 were families with <br />children <br />640 were experiencing <br />chronic homelessness <br />1,003 were unsheltered <br /> <br />In addition to the one-night count <br />numbers, <br />1,616 unduplicated <br />individuals were served at <br />Egan Warming Centers <br />during 24 nights of <br />operation during the <br />winter season <br />12, 998 homeless <br />individuals sought social <br />services through Lane <br />County Human Services <br />funded programs in 2016 <br />2,388 homeless students <br />attended public school in <br />Lane County during the <br />2015-2016 school year. <br /> <br />People experiencing homelessness <br />utilize emergency services and jail <br />beds at a proportionally higher <br />rate than those who are housed. It <br />costs $237-$1,900 per visit to the <br />Sacred Heart Hospital Emergency <br />Room and $171 per day to house <br />an inmate at the Lane County Jail. <br /> <br />In Lane County, there are: <br />462 year-around <br />emergency shelter beds <br />330 seasonal shelter beds <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />January 23, 2019, Work Session - Item 2