Laundry Program Evaluation

Nearly 4,000 people were reported as experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Multnomah County in 2023 (Theriault, Roots & Okeke, 2023). Studies by the Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative (HRAC) at Portland State University and other researchers have identified an urgent need for free laundry services among people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the Portland region. A lack of access to clean laundry is associated with negative impacts on mental and physical health, as well as environmental impacts from wet or dirty textiles that are discarded rather than being reused. In an attempt to address these and other issues, the City of Portland opened the Laundry Basket in October 2024 to provide free laundry services for people living unsheltered. Ground Score Association, which hires people with lived experience of homelessness, was selected to operate the program. As part of this process, the City hired HRAC to help design the program, to evaluate and provide recommendations on the facility, and to perform a developmental evaluation by interviewing clients and observing the program in action. Eight clients were interviewed over the course of three visits to the facility in late November and early December 2024. Program metrics were recorded by Laundry Basket staff.