Latest news with #HomelessnessAssessmentReport
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
More than 2,550 Ohioans in Franklin County experienced homelessness in January, according to report
(Stock photo) A record-high number of people in Franklin County experienced homelessness earlier this year, according to a new report. Franklin County's annual Point-in-Time Count identified 2,556 people experiencing homelessness — a 7.4% increase from 2024. Point-in-Time counts are one-night estimates of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness that are conducted nationwide in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Franklin County's count took place on Jan. 23. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'When you are not building out enough infrastructure and diversity of infrastructure as you're growing … or if the planning isn't being caught up to that economic growth, to that population boom — what ends up happening is that housing becomes a commodity,' said Shannon Isom, executive director of the Community Shelter Board. 'With all commodities, when you have a scarcity, it also allows for prices to go up. When prices go up, people are literally being priced out, which is exactly what's happening right now.' Individual sheltered homelessness went up by 14% compared to 2024 while the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness decreased by 12%, according to the report. A little more than half of people experiencing homelessness were men (57%), 42% were women and 1% were non-binary. 55% were Black, 33% were white and 3% were Hispanic, according to the report. There was a 31% increase in unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness, a 14% increase in single adults experiencing homelessness, and a 7% increase in veterans experiencing homelessness, according to the report. There was a 21% decrease in people with severe mental illness experiencing homelessness, a 31% decrease in the number of domestic violence survivors experiencing homelessness, and a 2% decrease in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness, according to the report. Franklin County is Ohio's most populous county with 1,356,303 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the region is projected to experience 16% of overall homelessness by 2028, Isom said. Ohioans need to be making at least $20.81 an hour working a full-time job to be able to afford a 'modest' two-bedroom apartment, according to a report last year by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. Forty percent of people experiencing homelessness are employed, Isom said. 'There's just not enough homes, there's just not enough real estate,' she said. 'It's difficult to live here within this region, again, because of the commodification of housing.' There were 11,759 people experiencing homelessness in Ohio last year, according to HUD's annual Homelessness Assessment Report. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Center for Human Development conducts 'point-in-time count' of homeless individuals in Chicopee and Holyoke
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – Officials in two Hampden County cities are looking to see how many people are living without a home. The data they collect will be used to help better understand the local homeless population and to develop effective strategies to help them in the future. 'We have seen more numbers of homeless people unhoused and becoming more unhoused than we have before,' said senior division director of CHD's Division of Diversion, Shelter, and Housing, Christy O'Brien. The Center for Human Development (CHD) and other community partners are surveying the streets of Chicopee and Holyoke to see how many people in those cities are unsheltered. CHD facilitating this point-in-time count on behalf of the Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care, the federally funded collaborative responsible for responding to homelessness in the region. They collected basic demographics like age, gender, race, ethnicity, veteran status, disability — plus questions to see if people need services. The questions cover mental illness, substance abuse, HIV status, domestic violence, and chronic homelessness. 'There are a lot of people that cannot get in a shelter. We work with that every single day trying to find any shelter bed for anyone possible. And we've really hit a lot of walls across all the communities,' said O'Brien. O'Brien says housing costs and availability also contribute to the number of people they are seeing unhoused. She says it's also difficult for them to navigate resources for mental health, medical attention, and chronic conditions. The count isn't just about gathering data, CHD and other outreach workers use it to connect with people and give them emergency supplies. Those supplies include hygiene kits, socks, backpacks, hand warmers, food, and flashlights. 'The conditions are incredibly difficult, obviously, and particularly at this time of year. So for us to be able to give them the bare necessities feels really critical,' expressed O'Brien. This data along with the data collected from emergency shelters and transitional housing will be reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for their annual homelessness count. HUD, in turn, will use the data from these 'point-in-time' counts on January 29 across the US for its annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress. Last year, it was reported that over 770,000 people were homeless nationwide. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
More than 11,700 people experienced homelessness in Ohio last year, new federal report shows
(Stock photo) The number of people experiencing homelessness in Ohio increased about 3% last year, according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. There were 11,759 people experiencing homelessness in Ohio in 2024, according to HUD's annual Homelessness Assessment Report. The report came out last month. Nearly 80% of those experiencing homelessness in Ohio were sheltered while the rest were unsheltered, according to the report. 'More and more folks are experiencing homelessness because we have an affordable housing crisis, not just here in central Ohio, but nationally and until we are able to build enough … affordable housing, we're going to continue to have this challenge with people sleeping on the streets,' said Mike Premo, executive director of the United Methodist Church and Community Development for All People in Columbus. They host a warming center at a nearby church that holds 40 people a night. 'We're seeing more and more folks that are sleeping in doorways along Parsons Avenue,' Premo said. Homelessness in the U.S. increased 18% last year with 771,480 people experiencing homelessness, according to the report. 'It is evident that there is an increase in homelessness across the United States, and that communities are feeling the pressure of the rising rent prices and just the lack of the supply of housing and communities all across the U.S.,' said Amy Riegel, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The main cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing, according to COHHIO. 'The number one solution is the availability of housing that is affordable to individuals, so that they can exit homelessness, and so the more housing that we can bring to bear within our communities, the more units that can be available and that can be open,' Riegel said. About 1 in 5 people experiencing homelessness nationally was 55 or older and nearly half of them were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in places not intended for human habitation, according to the report. 'Many of them just simply couldn't afford to live in their homes, or they were living with family members that could no longer keep them in their homes, and they're finding their way out to the street,' said Ben Sears, executive director of the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless. Veterans were the only population to see a decline in homelessness rates — dropping 8%, according to the report. More than 32,800 veterans were experiencing homelessness nationally. 'I am skeptical of any numbers that show a decrease in homelessness for any population,' Premo said. 'I just don't see how that's possible. It is an enduring tragedy that in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, people who fought, served our country honorably, are on the streets.' HUD's Point-in-Time count are one-night estimates of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness that took place in January 2024. 'The count is critical,' Premo said. 'The better our count is, the more likely we are to get more funds from HUD for programs supporting homeless emergency shelters.' Franklin County's annual Point-in-Time Count was Thursday. 'They try to make these counts as accurate as possible, but there's always going to be an under count because there are people who are genuinely suspicious of any government agency asking for information and they're not going to share it,' Premo said. 'The problem is actually greater than what the numbers would show.' While Point-in-Time counts can useful snapshots of those experiencing homelessness, they often don't include those who are doubled up liviing in a basement, living in a garage or out of their car, Sears said. 'It really underrepresents those individuals who have severe mental illness, substance use disorder and other kinds of barriers to accessing resources,' he said. Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
