Supporting People Experiencing Homelessness
February 18, 2025There has been increasing dialogue around homelessness in recent years, with many strategies and perspectives being discussed and explored. Portland State University (PSU) houses a Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative that addresses issues leading to and perpetuating homelessness while working to create solutions. One resource from PSU is their collaboration with Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) to develop estimates of sheltered and unsheltered homelessness. Furthermore, OHCS recently published their State of the State’s Housing Report which documents Oregon’s housing situation.
The United States Census Bureau has published a number of reports about people experiencing homelessness, including an ethnographic study and estimates of the population experiencing homelessness. They estimate that over 325,000 people, or 0.1% of the United States population, who experienced homelessness from 2018 to 2022, lived in shelters. This is just over half of the total U.S. population that experienced homelessness, which was estimated at 582,500 people in 2022, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The number reached the highest ever recorded at over 771,000 people in 2024.
In addition to folks who research and attempt to mitigate the causes and burdens of homelessness, we also need employees who work in areas of the economy that support people experiencing homelessness. One subset of the economy involved with supporting the houseless population are those who work in the community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services industry – a subsector of health care and social assistance.
People who have careers in this subsector “provide a wide variety of social assistance services directly to their clients,” according to the Census Bureau. This includes collecting, preparing, and delivering food to those in need; providing short-term emergency shelter, transitional housing, volunteer construction or repair of low-cost housing, and/or repair of homes for individuals or families in need; and providing food, shelter, clothing, medical relief, resettlement, and counseling to victims of domestic or international disasters or conflicts. These services typically do not include residential or accommodation services on a long-term basis.
Strong Growth in Health Care and Social Assistance
Health care and social assistance in Oregon has been growing consistently over the long term and has had some of the strongest growth over the past year in Oregon’s economy. As of December 2024, health care and social assistance grew 6.2% over the past year, which is an addition of 18,100 jobs. For context, total nonfarm employment in Oregon added 22,000 jobs (+1.1%) over the past year.
We can dive into the specific nuances of social assistance within the broader health care and social assistance sector if we look at not seasonally adjusted data. Not seasonally adjusted data means that normal fluctuations in employment due to seasonal patterns are not removed from the data- think of increased retail hiring leading up to the holiday season. Social assistance grew 12.2% over the past year, or 9,200 jobs. This was the fastest growing of all industries over the past year.
Diving into even more specific nuances of social assistance, we can look at employment in community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services. This smaller industry is not published in Oregon’s Current Employment Statistics program data but we can use the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) to gain some insight into this subsector in Oregon.
A note on the use of sex in this article: While gender is a spectrum, this article only uses the two binary sexes “female” and “male.” The Census’ QWI sources their sex data from the Social Security Administration. While sex identification on a Social Security document can be binary or non-binary, Social Security’s record system can only designate a person as either female or male.
Employment by Sex
The community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services subsector tends to be female dominated. In Oregon, female workers have consistently made up between 60% to 70% of employment in this industry since 1992. The margin between female and male workers has been shrinking, but this trend is slow. In 2024, female workers were 63% of the employment in community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services.
This does not appear to be due to either male or female workers substantially growing or declining, but the rate at which each is hired may be shifting. The hiring rates of female and male workers have been relatively consistent, though the hiring rates have been broadly trending down for female workers (and up for male workers) since 2014.
Employment by Age
A popular topic of conversation lately has been Oregon’s aging population and how it will affect the workforce. Many discussions have touched on the fact that some industries have more quickly aging workforces than others; in fact, we have an entire article on Oregon’s aging workforce. Some industries will experience this to a stronger degree than others.
With this background in mind, we can look at employment in community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services by age. Health care and social assistance as an entire industry has about 24% of their workforce that is ages 55 and older, which is in line with Oregon’s workforce as a whole as well as the community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services subsector.
In the community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services industry, a growing share of the workforce in Oregon was ages 55 and older through 2014, before decreasing by 2024. The number of workers ages 55 and over did not decrease; instead, the number of workers who were younger than 55 increased at a faster rate.
The share of workers between the ages of 14 and 34 in the community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services industry in Oregon has remained fairly constant at around 30% of the workforce. The share of the workforce between the ages of 35 and 54 has fluctuated more. It was largest in the early 1990s and has been somewhere between 42% to 50% of workers over the past 25 years as the industry has grown. From 2014 to 2024, workers between the ages of 35 and 54 doubled, reaching just over 2,400 in 2024. Workers between the ages of 14 and 34 have experienced similar growth: doubling in size over the most recent 10 years to almost 1,500 workers in 2024.
Opportunities Abound
There is no doubt that there will be lots of job opportunities in the community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services industry in the years to come. In Oregon, social assistance is expected to add 7,100 jobs (+10%) from 2023 to 2033. In addition to the new job growth in this sector, there will also be replacement openings, where there is a need to replace retiring workers or others leaving the industry.
For those interested in a career supporting people experiencing homelessness, use the Occupation Profiles tool to explore potential careers such as social and human service assistants or social and community service managers. Social and human service assistants earn a median hourly wage of $23.07 and are projected to add more than 1,300 jobs each year. The typical entry level education is a high school diploma or equivalent, but those with an associate’s degree have a competitive advantage. Social and community service managers earn a median hourly wage of $37.69 and are projected to add over 300 jobs each year. The typical entry level education is a bachelor’s degree.
There are also residential advisors, social workers, and general and operations managers who work in this space. These career opportunities span all areas of the economy from management and financial occupations to professional and business services to service occupations; there are opportunities for everyone!
More Resources
In addition to the resources listed at the beginning of this article, explore more resources from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The mission of USICH is to coordinate the federal response to homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the federal government in contributing to the end of homelessness. The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose sole purpose is to end homelessness in the United States. By using research and data to find solutions to homelessness, they work with federal and local partners to create a solid base of policy and resources that support those solutions; and then help communities implement them.