Built for Zero Quarterly Update

February 18, 2024

The Joint Office is excited to share updates on our work to implement Built for Zero, a framework for measurably ending homelessness with a data-driven approach. (Don’t know what Built for Zero is? Learn more about it here.)

See our latest monthly data

Outreach Data Collection Pilot initial findings:

Transition Projects and Central City Concern have begun their final month of the pilot project to strengthen field data collection, combined with providing an entrypoint to housing and services directly to people living unsheltered.

The pilot, which launched in August 2023, has been testing out several things that we hope will improve not just data collection, but the Joint Office’s ability to effectively reach and connect people to services. The project incorporates new approaches in several key areas: data collection, assessment for Coordinated Access (the centralized housing and services system), and outreach coordination.

A major component of the pilot program is the software tool that outreach teams have used to conduct data collection surveys — a mobile app called Survey123.

The app tracks geographic data as outreach workers interact with individuals. This geolocation component tells the team where outreach is happening, who is being connected with and who is making contact.

As part of the Built for Zero framework, the Joint Office is working to define what an outreach effort covering the geography of our community can look like. By bringing this level of data collection and coordination into the field, we are working to create consistent, coordinated and reliable outreach systems that capture at least 90% of the unsheltered population on our By-Name List.

The Outreach Data Collection Pilot along with other outreach programs like Housing Multnomah Now — a pilot program addressing unsheltered homelessness — are testing this tool as a way to accomplish this! See our last newsletter for more details.

BFZ Data Collection Through Outreach:
A Timeline

Mapping it Out

Map showing zones of outreach in Portland

Over the course of the Outreach Data Collection Pilot, the ArcGIS tool captured the geolocation of individuals engaged by outreach teams in real-time. Each interaction was then mapped to the outreach zone the teams were located in at the time. These interactions were integrated into the usual service delivery of outreach staff, and only represent a portion of their total interactions overall.
Initial reporting shows that the four participating outreach teams are spending time in many different areas across Multnomah County, a total of 19 out of 37 zones.

A heatmap shows that there are certain areas that are frequented by outreach more than others, with the downtown Portland area being a “hotspot.”

Map showing the ODCP Coordinated Access Survey Response

Outreach Data Collection Pilot: Service Distribution Across Zones - pie chart

Looking at the overall distribution of services across all zones:

Southwest/Northwest which includes the downtown area, makes up nearly half of the outreach services conducted during the pilot.

Southeast is the second leading service area with almost one-fourth of the service distribution.

Some context to these initial findings:

There are only four outreach teams participating in the pilot, a small portion of the many outreach teams contracted with the Joint Office.
Pilot data collection is only a portion of these outreach team’s work so it is not reflective of the entirety of outreach being conducted within Multnomah County.

Some outreach programs participating operate by referral and are directed to specific locations based on specific criteria. That includes Central City Concern’s and Transition Projects’ Navigation Teams — two of the largest outreach teams in Multnomah County — which bring resources, referrals and services to people living in places not meant for human habitation, specifically locations designated to be swept with direction from the City of Portland’s Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program

Ensuring Comprehensive Data

The purpose of using data collection tools like Survey123 is to not just help us fill gaps in our data overall, but also to help calculate how many people we aren’t yet reaching, with an intentional focus on filling gaps in data for those who may not be known to the system.

Over the course of the pilot in 2023, the Outreach Data Collection Pilot providers completed 263 surveys. Of the individuals who gave their names and identifiable information, 17 were found to have never been served by our system before.

The data in our Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is created when people engage in services. That means our HMIS has a wealth of data on people who are experiencing homelessness and are engaged in services in our region, but it also means that people who aren’t engaged in services aren't reflected in our current data.

Looking to identify the number of people that outreach teams encounter who have never been engaged in services and who aren’t known to the system, the Outreach Data Collection Pilot providers began the pilot by conducting a brief gap analysis survey — asking questions about the kinds of services individuals need, if they had been served by outreach teams before, and if they were connected to other homeless service providers in our system.

In the pilot data we saw a discrepancy between the number of individuals who reported that they had never been served by our homelessness response system before, compared to the number of individuals who actually were new to the HMIS system. The majority of the responses indicated that this was not their first time connecting with outreach services, but more than half also reported they were not connected to any other services besides outreach.

Chart: First engagement with Outreach services? No: 63%, Yes: 37%

Chart: Existing versus new HMIS clients: 9% New HMIS, 91% Existing HMIS

Something to consider:
Feedback from providers indicated that this information might have been influenced by the lack of clarity in the question.

Chart: Connected to Service Outside of Outreach? No: 58%, Yes: 42%

When discussing the survey workflow with providers, outreach workers noted that some people who are living unsheltered don’t consider services like day centers (which provide services like laundry, showers or mail), meal sites, or even going to their primary care provider as “being connected to services.” The heart of the question may be that people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness may only consider Housing Services to be "services". Future questions need to be more descriptive, and give clear examples of what is meant by "services" in order to get a more accurate answer.

These lessons learned are a critical piece of piloting! And having a connection directly with providers has been pivotal in understanding the impacts of both the ArcGIS tool its use in the field, but also the questions themselves.

Who are outreach teams serving - Demographic Comparisons

In 2023, the Built for Zero team completed a 12-month retrospective deep dive into the By-Name List data for FY 2022 (see our last newsletter for more information). The takeaway from that deep dive found that the demographics reported each month as part of the Joint Office’s Built for Zero “Snapshots” generally matched the average annual demographic breakdown.

To that end, in an effort to show the demographics of who outreach teams were reaching, the age, gender,race and ethnicity information collected for individuals was compared to the average demographics of the By-Name List at the end of FY 2022.

To see if there was consistency or a change over time, this is being measured at two intervals: at the beginning of the pilot and again as a total across the length of the pilot.

Initial reporting (using data through the end of December 2023) shows that outreach teams began the pilot reaching a younger demographic than the average By-Name List, but that over time those numbers seem to be leveling out.

Gender breakdown is a bit more difficult to report on as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently made language updates to the reporting categories used in HMIS. So this look-back is not a one-to-one comparison. Previously, gender categories such as Gender Non-Binary and Culturally Specific Identity were combined into one larger reporting group. These are now broken out into distinct selections, which may be why the overall Outreach Data Collection Pilot survey results are higher than the By-Name List averages from FY 2022.

When looking at the breakdown of Race/Ethnicity, while there are some fluctuations, the general averages do seem to be in line with what we’ve seen from our annual reporting. Because we aren’t seeing major inconsistencies from the By-Name List, this data is helping build our confidence that our system is doing a consistent job in reaching people. But this is just one piece of the puzzle.

What's up next?

Post Pilot Report
A full analytical report on pilot data, how it correlates to By-Name List Inflow and Coordinated Access rates — including qualitative feedback from participating providers — will be completed after the pilot sunsets at the end of February.

Inflow Analysis Workgroup
The Built for Zero Improvement Team launched a workgroup focused on utilizing the larger By-Name List inflow data to ask bigger questions regarding the root causes and drivers of why an individual may experience chronic homelessness. This workgroup, which launched in January 2024, is the initial step to mapping our current system response and will be pairing qualitative and quantitative evaluation techniques to understand programming gaps and opportunities related to lowering the number of people who become chronically homeless (Inflow).

Ensuring Comprehensive Data
As part of the Data Quality Plan, improved By-Name List reporting has been a primary focus of the Built for Zero data team over the past several months. The new reporting structure refines the definitions for Inflow and Outflow calculations, creating a more robust logic for an individual’s location and our ability to identify and report their homelessness status. The new BFZ reporting, along with a number of improvements to our current calculations, will also help bring us closer to our goal of reaching a 100% on the Community Solutions scorecard with three additional points for a new score of 20/29!

View our latest Built for Zero data
The Joint Office of Homeless Services launched a new website in 2023 that includes a page with monthly snapshots of the data we’re collecting as part of our Built for Zero work. Check it out here.

Find out more about the national initiative of Built for Zero to end homelessness — city by city, person by person — through building and maintaining quality by-name lists.