02-05-2025
Count finds homelessness on the rise in Franklin County
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — More people are experiencing homelessness than ever before in Franklin County.
Almost half are in the workforce; the Columbus non-profit Community Shelter Board (CSB) said many make between $14 and $20 per hour. The problem stems from a lack of housing.
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CSB says this year, it saw a rise in sheltered homelessness, with more people staying in emergency shelters. This data comes from a Point-In-Time count: a count of people experiencing homelessness on one day in January.
'It also tells us overall what the umbrella of homelessness looks like,' CSB President and CEO Shannon TL Isom said.
Now, CSB is sharing that data.
'This is a structural issue,' Isom said. 'Forty percent of our community members that are in our homeless shelter have jobs.'
The count identified a 7.4% increase in people experiencing homelessness compared with last year.
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There were some positive trends: the number of people who reported experiencing mental health concerns, chronic homelessness and domestic violence decreased. However, there was an increase in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness.
'It is a glimpse of the unseen folks in our community,' Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin said. 'Our population growth and these good things that are happening is also coming with a side effect that more of our community is being pushed out into homelessness.'
The number of people in emergency shelters grew by 13%. One of those shelters is run by Jasmine Franklin.
'It's about immediate service, the smaller barriers,' said Franklin, founder and CEO of 3rd Shift Warming Cooling Center.
She's using her own experience with homelessness to push for change.
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'It took me again, like I said, a week or two before I was able to see a case manager,' Franklin said. 'When you come into my shelter within that same day, if not by that next morning, you'll be able to start talking to a case manager, start working through the barriers immediately.'
The data shows that more people are using warming shelters. There was a 95% increase in people who used Winter Warming Centers and non-congregate shelters.
Before the coldest temperatures, the City of Columbus conducted camp sweeps, which sent many people into the shelters. Shortly after the count, some emergency shelters closed and many people had to go back outside. Isom said the increase while they were open shows the emergency shelter method is working.
'What we have found in the number is that the unsheltered population actually went down by 11%, and we know then, in the winter, warming centers are working because we saw the increase of 11% there,' Isom said.
However, CSB needs funding to keep those going and right now, many of the programs, like for those facing eviction, are at risk due to federal cuts. Nonprofits share that they are worried that if there are no alternatives to this funding by the end of the year, housing issues could get a lot worse.
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'We are having those conversations right now,' Hardin said. 'We are talking about how, in Columbus, we can stack and how we can look at new funding streams. These are big conversations and you really have to be really thoughtful about it, and so I think that over the next coming months, we will have to come up with a big, bold solution.'
Hardin pointed to Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther's proposed $500 million bond package on the ballot this November as one potential solution.
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