Homelessness increase expected after area head count completed
FAYETTEVILLE — Representatives from area service providers anticipate the number of residents experiencing homelessness in Northwest Arkansas to increase this year as it has the last few years.
Volunteers combed the region Friday to survey as many people as they could find living in tents, staying at emergency shelters or otherwise living without a home of their own. The effort was part of the national Point in Time count, a 24-hour snapshot taken every year of how many people are experiencing homelessness across the country.
Local continuums of care, such as the one in Northwest Arkansas, do the count. The federal government requires they do the count at least every other year and report the findings to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The results help determine how much money local agencies receive from the federal government to combat homelessness.
The count taken Jan. 26 last year revealed 436 people experiencing homelessness, up from 343 the year before. The number of children without permanent housing reported by schools also rose, with 2,268 in 2022 and 2,675 last year.
Volunteers take counts in Washington, Benton, Carroll and Madison counties.
Homelessness also is on the rise for the entire country. More than 650,000 people were counted as homeless in January last year, a 12% increase from 2022, according to the federal government.
Local service providers believe the numbers will go up again this year despite their best efforts, said Debbie Martin, executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Continuum of Care. More warming centers than usual opened in cities such as Springdale and Siloam Springs during a record-setting cold snap in the region this month and were filled to the brim, she said.
Most of the people counted are from the region, Martin said. Service providers know this because that’s one of the questions on the survey, she said.
That means homelessness is increasing not because people are coming to the region from other places, but because the people who already live here can’t find a home, Martin
said. Rent has increased dramatically and wages have not kept up. Plus, there aren’t enough homes for everyone who wants to live in the region, she said.
“It’s not that we don’t have funding, because we do. It’s that we can’t find places in Northwest Arkansas that will house these individuals,” Martin said. “Either their credit is too low, or they have a criminal background. It’s not like we have a plethora of apartments we can pick from.”
Nonprofits and volunteers can continue to count people for a week after the designated count day. They just have to ask the person where they slept Friday, Martin said. She said she hopes to post the results from this year’s count to the continuum’s website in spring.
Sean Borkine, 53, of Springdale has lived in Northwest Arkansas for 20 years, though he originally hails from New York. He took part in the count at the Center for Nonprofits at St. Mary’s in Rogers.
Borkine said he usually stays at the homes of people he meets, but it’s an unstable situation. Sometimes he might stay at a hotel, but that costs hundreds of dollars a week he doesn’t have, he said.
Borkine spent three months living at a halfway house and graduated, but he fights with substance abuse. He described addiction like being stuck to flypaper, getting stuck more and more with every movement.
Borkine is trying to get his legal affairs in order so he can get a job. He was previously incarcerated and struggles to make court appearances with no car. He usually takes a bus to get around, but it can be difficult to make appointments on time with the bus schedules, he said.
Once Borkine gets his court matters settled, he said he wants to get a job and find his own place. He said he knows what he needs to do.
“This place has a lot of opportunities,” Borkine said. “It’s how you use the opportunities to get somewhere and where you want to get to.”
David Reaves, 62, has a room with the Micah 6:8 Initiative transitional housing program that’s part of the WayStation day center in Rogers. He said he’s been in Arkansas for about two years and lived in Oklahoma before he started staying at shelters in Fort Smith and Van Buren.