Unsheltered homelessness reduced slightly in Vancouver in 2024

There were 1,366 people experiencing homelessness in Vancouver in 2024, according to the annual homelessness counts presented to the city council on Monday night.

The new data paint a picture that shows progress as well as ongoing challenges in addressing homelessness in Southwest Washington’s largest city. There was a 5% increase in the total number of people experiencing homelessness in 2024. But, for the first time in six years, there were more people living in shelters than outdoors.

“Every year from 2019 on, we have had more people experiencing homelessness unsheltered than inside. And that finally went the other direction this year,” said Jamie Spinelli, Vancouver’s homeless response manager.

Spinelli said the city has been making efforts to rapidly expand shelter capacity in the face of the city’s housing shortage.

The city of Vancouver also is expected to formally announce several emergency winter shelters this week. They will be operated from mid-December through March, and are meant to provide a temporary solution while the city moves forward with a more permanent congregate facility — called the bridge shelter — that is planned to open in 2026.

“The goal here is adding shelter capacity because people are outside who need to be inside. And this is just a way we can do that while working on the bridge shelter,” Spinelli said.

Counties in the Portland metro area have shown more progress on homelessness recently, too. Clackamas and Washington counties have significantly reduced their unsheltered homeless populations in recent years, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Progress has come thanks to a suite of services for housing, eviction prevention and behavioral health programs paid for by the Metro supportive housing services tax. Multnomah County has also said it is working on a plan to cut its unsheltered homeless population in half by 2026.

However, numbers in Vancouver could also tick up. In early December, the city of Washougal passed an ordinance to penalize tent camping on publicly owned property that could push people experiencing homelessness toward more service-rich communities like Vancouver. Violations of the Washougal ordinance include fines, trespass warnings and possible arrest. A variety of churches and nonprofits offer meal programs in Washougal, but the community has no permanent shelter options.

During her presentation, Spinelli noted a concerning data point in Vancouver that showed a 43% increase in families who were unsheltered in 2024. She said trends like this are why the city’s homeless response team has been trying to expand winter shelter capacity so quickly.

“The rest of these numbers, I feel, would suggest that our efforts are working,” she said. “They are effective. We just need more of it.”