Annual homeless count in Lincoln County found nearly 500 without housing — one third were children

By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle

For one cold night this January, at least 498 people were without housing in Lincoln County. One third were children.

Every year, groups of volunteers and social service organizations attempt to count everyone in a community without housing. Originally designed for metropolitan areas, the federally mandated Point in Time count is difficult to conduct in rural areas.

In cities, taking numbers from social service agencies and shelters can produce a fairly accurate count. But for Lincoln County, the rural coastal landscape and sparse service providers presents a hurdle.

The county’s sole temporary low-barrier shelter last January was in Newport but many unsheltered people may live in parking lots or forests.

For rural areas, the “point in time” count is an undercount and often inaccurate. But that doesn’t undermine its importance. For years, Lincoln County missed out on funding opportunities because of the inaccuracies of the count, said Housing Authority of Lincoln County executive director Karen Rockwell.

To local service agencies, this year’s count marks a triumph. It’s not that homelessness went up – it’s that the effort to count became more accurate.

The count

The Agape Respite Center operates from a single-wide trailer two blocks east of the U.S. Highway 101 in downtown Newport. Last week, patrons lined up during the lunch hour as staff served just-out-of-the oven enchiladas.

Tracey Thompson, 62, lives with her service dog in her van and began to tear up as she spoke. She didn’t know the organization existed until about a month ago. Since then, some things have gotten easier, like having an address to deliver important mail regarding her space on the affordable housing program.

About 55-70 people come to the respite center each day and the number of clients has grown since they opened in 2023, said founder Jamelle Villareal. They have more than 700 clients, Villareal told the Lincoln Chronicle.

Last week, staff member Patti Page handed plates to those who came through. “But there are no homeless people in Lincoln County!” Page said sarcastically.

The tables full of patrons erupted in laughter and some repeated the expression as if it was an inside joke. There is a misconception that there aren’t many people experiencing homelessness in Lincoln County, Page said.

Lincoln County missed out on homelessness funding for years because of that misconception and the difficulties in conducting an accurate count of its unhoused population.

For several years, the annual count was conducted while holding an event that connected people with services. That way of counting relied on people coming to volunteers to be counted and usually produced numbers that hovered around 100, Rockwell said.

There were people not being reached and the county missed out on funding opportunities. Then in 2023, Gov. Tina Kotek declared a homeless state of emergency and dispersed money based on county point in time data. As a result, Lincoln County received one of the smallest slivers in the state.

That same year, the county hired a consultant to perform an analysis, estimating it  actually had more than 2,000 unhoused individuals. But that number includes students in the school district that go by different definitions of homelessness.

Since then, the county has secured more funding and feels the state understands the rural coastal challenges Lincoln County faces, she said.

“Now we try to meet people where they are instead of them coming to us,” Rockwell said.

During the January count, volunteers from various organizations “divide and conquer” by looking for people at gas stations, soup kitchens, rural camping spots and connecting with public works and police departments to identify where people might be staying, Rockwell said.

“This year’s numbers tell a story of increased infrastructure,” Rockwell said.

By the numbers

More than 60 volunteers from 25 organizations in Lincoln County used an app on their phones to fill out survey questions when speaking with unhoused individuals. Since the county is considered rural, they had over a week to count.

In Lincoln County, 498 people were counted to be without housing, according to data from Community Services Consortium, the local community action agency serving Lincoln, Benton and Linn counties.

Last year, 517 people were counted. To Rockwell, the numbers being so close year to year signifies the accuracy of the count.

Of those 498 people, 251 were unsheltered and 247 were sheltered. In Newport, 167 people were unsheltered, while 47 were counted in Waldport, 29 in Lincoln City, three in Toledo and one in Depoe Bay.

Six percent of unhoused people said they were domestic violence survivors, nearly 20 percent had a serious mental illness or substance use disorder and 20 percent were chronically homeless, defined as someone with a disability who has been homeless for at least a year or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness within the past three years. Nearly 6 percent were veterans.

Over a quarter of the unhoused individuals that filled out the survey identified as Black, Indigenous, Hispanic or a person of color, which is overrepresented when compared to the total county population ratio.

Most notably the amount of unhoused youth more than doubled since 2024.

This year, the volunteers counted 149 unhoused youths. The rising number is attributed to a concerted effort at Lincoln County School District to count unhoused youth.

Unhoused youth

Inside the student services center in Newport High School’s west campus, Homeless Education Literacy Project coordinator Woody Crobar sits across a shelf stocked with basic hygiene supplies. There’s a food bank at one end of the room, a shared space with the school nurse and other student services. At the other end, a closet still being unpacked is full of pencils, notebooks, and other equipment.

The county has always had high numbers of unhoused youth when compared to the rest of the state, Crobar said.

It ranks in the bottom third – 25th out of 36 counties – for medium household income, averaging $61,314 compared with a statewide average of $80,426, according to The Ford Family Foundation’s 2025 “Oregon by the Numbers” report. The county also ranks in the upper third for child poverty and uncertainty of access to adequate food, according to the study.

“The housing here is expensive, and a lot of people are rent burdened and cost burdened spending more than half of their pay checks on rent,” Crobar said.

But there’s some nuance in the school district’s ability to collect data compared to other school districts.

“In LCSD we have a team of staff doing this work, but in many districts it’s only a single staff person–who may not even do this work exclusively,” Crobar said. “Our numbers in LCSD may seem very high, but I think many districts would likely see similar results to ours if they had more staff time dedicated to this work.,”

Even though the point in time count showed an increase in youth homelessness, there’s a lot the numbers don’t show. That’s mainly because the definition varies between schools and the official point-in-time count. Schools are mandated by a federal law that places responsibility on schools to assist youth experiencing homelessness, ensuring their right to access education.

Usually in the Lincoln County School district, staff are able to get students connected with resources after they answer a housing survey when they register for class and also may be referred throughout the year. Schools count doubling up – when housing is shared with others due to eviction, loss of housing or other financial hardships. And its largest category of unhoused youth in the school district.

Last school year, 648 youth were considered homeless. Sixty-six percent were doubled up.

Although the overall official point-in-time count and youth count is higher than in previous years, that doesn’t necessarily mean more people are houseless in Lincoln County, Rockwell said.

The school district makes a big effort to connect students with resources. Transitional housing programs in the county have gotten people off the street and there are more resources in place to meet the needs of unhoused people, Rockwell said.

The numbers this year reflect the larger effort to get people counted, she said.

“When you look at the numbers, this doesn’t mean things aren’t working – this means things are working,” Rockwell said.

• Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org