Fewer Oregonians named homelessness as the state’s most pressing problem in the latest opinion poll commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Just 12% of 600 registered voters interviewed for the poll answered “homelessness,” or some version of that issue, when asked what they thought was the state’s most important problem. Among registered voters in Portland, a similarly small percentage — just 14% — named homelessness.
The statewide poll was conducted by DHM Research from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Surveys were conducted via telephone and text.
The small share of voters calling homelessness the state’s most important problem this fall represents a sharp departure from how people answered a similar question in summer 2023. At that time, 45% of 500 poll respondents from across Oregon named homelessness as the state’s most important problem. That poll was also conducted by DHM Research and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
“I think it is not so much that homelessness is considered a less bad problem,” said Keaton Miller, a poll respondent and professor of economics at the University of Oregon. “It’s more that other aspects of the economy are considered a bigger problem.”
Economic worries and a lack of faith in government leaders topped this year’s list of top concerns, coming in at 28% and 27% of voters listing these issues respectively.
Miller, who is 39 and lives in Eugene, did list the “unhoused population and drug abuse” as the state’s most important problems when asked this fall. He said Tuesday that he thought having a highly visible homelessness problem hurt Oregon’s attempts to become a tech-economy state.
“The big overarching issue in Oregon is we are not a wealthy state, and we have an economy trying to transition out of an extraction economy into a tech economy,” he said. “Attracting businesses to do that has been really challenging in part because of the perception of Oregon cities being hobbled by the homelessness issue.”
Miller said he believes most local leaders do their best to solve problems with the tax dollars at hand. He pointed out that they are under far stricter scrutiny than, say, tech company leaders who spend big on projects that never get off the ground.
Another reason fewer people may be listing homelessness as a top problem is that there appears to be less of it, at least in Portland. The total number of people who are homeless in Multnomah County has risen steadily, according to data that tracks who has recently interacted with the county’s homeless services department. But the number of people actually sleeping outside has appeared to decrease, according to other metrics.
For example, employees of a program called Downtown Portland Clean & Safe that is an arm of the Portland Metro Chamber, counted a nightly average of 33 tents downtown for most of 2026 so far. And while spokesperson Monice Wong was careful to say that some counting methods had changed this year, the organization’s tent tally in 2022 for the whole downtown district was in the 400s.
“We know that the dramatic reduction in tents has drastically improved safety and livability conditions,” Wong wrote in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Less tents bring less associated trash, biohazards, and individuals experiencing substance use disorders and behavior health conditions in the public right of way.”
This decline tracks a public opinion trend among Portland-area registered voters as recorded by several recent polls commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive. In 2024, 50% of Portland-area registered voters named homelessness as the most important problem in the area. In spring 2026, that shrank to 33%.
This fall, only 254 respondents to the statewide poll were from the Portland area. Of them, 12% named homelessness as the state’s most important problem. The fall poll did not ask about the Portland area’s most important problem, nor about impressions of downtown Portland.
There was also some level of political split in how poll respondents answered the question about the state’s most important problem. While self-identified liberal and conservative voters each listed the economy or poor leadership as the state’s top problem, liberals named homelessness next, while conservatives identified taxes and immigration before homelessness.
Portland resident and social worker Gene O’Neill said he felt the area’s taxes seem to be working. Echoing the observations of the team in downtown Portland, O’Neill said he had observed fewer people sleeping outside during his morning walks through his St. Johns neighborhood.
“To me, my tax dollars are my way of buying civilization,” said O’Neill, 69. “I feel the tax money is inevitable and kind of the way it goes. I get roads, less stress and a civil neighborhood to live in. So I’m not against taxes.”
O’Neill, who was among the group that named homelessness as a top problem, said three organizations within walking distance of downtown St. Johns offered help to people in need. He thought that must be part of what accounted for the smaller number of people living outside.
Still, O’Neill said the problem of homelessness was ongoing, and he didn’t have the answer to what would fix it.
“It’s kind of all of us that are stuck with this dynamic,” he said, “and I am waiting for someone to have a really brilliant answer.”
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