Skip to main content
Portland’s three metro-area counties are betting that new software will help them tackle homelessness by improving what they know about people living outside.
The three counties—Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington—have contracted with Las Vegas-based Bitfocus Inc. to run the Homeless Management and Information System (HMIS), a federally mandated database that serves the tricounty region. The Bitfocus system replaces one from WellSky, based in Overland Park, Kansas.
Local governments around the nation use HMISs to store information about homeless people seeking access federally-funded services. The amount of data has ballooned in recent years, making the old system “outdated,” Multnomah County said in a press release describing the switch in vendors.
The change comes four years after Multhomah County joined Built for Zero, a national non-profit that has had success in housing people by gathering information about each person’s situation and how they get—or don’t get—social services. Many localities, including Denver and San Diego, that are part of Built for Zero also use Bitfocus.
This latest overhaul is part of the county’s longstanding mission to reduce homelessness, which persists despite a homeless services tax levied by the Metro regional government that has poured millions into the three counties’ coffers since 2021.
As of May, some 15,500 people in Multnomah County alone were experiencing homelessness, according to the county’s data dashboard, up from about 12,500 in May 2024.
“By building a smarter and more connected data system, we’re not just improving efficiency—we’re making it easier for outreach teams and other frontline workers to offer people living on our streets the right help at the right time,” Metro Interim Housing Director Liam Frost said in a statement.
Among the services made possible by Bitfocus, according to the county: a better system for tracking shelter beds; a portal for those receiving services to view their own information;and easier mobile data-entry for street workers.
The current HMIS is straining under new demands, Multnomah County said. More homeless-services providers are entering data, and they’re using the system for “in much more complicated ways than it was designed for,” Multnomah County said, leading to errors.
A 2024 audit of the Joint Office of Homeless Services (now the Homeless Services Department) revealed inaccurate HMIS data. Moreover, many providers were resorting to other systems to track clients, the audit said.
Audit staff recommended finding a new system with an application programming interface, or API, that allows different software packages to communicate. Bitfocus has that capability, according to its website.
Multnomah County has been seeking a new regional system since it took over the HMIS from Portland’s Housing Bureau in 2024. The switch to Bitfocus is a step in that direction, but it will take “a few more years to reach full implementation,” the county said.
“By investing in this deliberate transition process, the counties can ensure the end result achieves the community’s aims: A better system that will let providers, administrators and elected leaders use data in new and innovative ways,” Multnomah County said.
