The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Homeless population decreasing
Challenges facing the population do still remain
Ohio’s homeless population decreased by 3 percent in 2017, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Ohio’s homeless population has decreased about 28 percent since 2012 — from 13,977 down to 10,095 according to HUD’s data.
Nationally, the homeless population increased for the first time in seven years to roughly 554,000 people. The number of homeless children decreased by 5 percent between 2016 and 2017, but the number of homeless 18-24 year olds increased by 7 percent, and 2 percent among those 24 and older.
HUD’s data for its Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress is collected through Point of Time counts. The onenight counts are conducted during the last 10 days of January each year.
The Point in Time Count isn’t perfect, the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) stated. For one thing, it “drastically undercounts the number of people who experience homelessness at some point in any given year,” the group stated following the release of the 2017 data.
Among the things HUD’s data
doesn’t account for is couch surfers — homeless who stay with friends and family — said Lake County Continuum of Care Chairwoman Marian Norman.
But COHHIO said the data does reveal overall trends, and for Ohio, they’re positive trends.
COHHIO stated there are several contributing factors. For one, homeless service providers throughout the state are adopting more effective strategies. Another is better communication and collaboration among local, state and federal agencies. The group also points to Medicaid expansion and a modest increase in funding for addressing homelessness at the federal level as positive contributions.
While improvements have been made, COHHIO said there are still challenges ahead.
“With rents continuing to rise rapidly while wages stagnate, more and more Ohioans are at risk of homelessness,” COHHIO stated. “And federal tax legislation pending in Congress has the potential to decimate affordable housing production and preservation, which would greatly exacerbate Ohio’s housing affordability crisis. The upstream situation for low-income families struggling to maintain stable housing poses great risk to Ohio’s continuing progress in the fight to end homelessness.”
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a minimum wage worker in Ohio ($8.15 an hour) needs to work 57 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom rental unit at Fair Market Rent.
The average Ohio renter earns $12.87 an hour, according to the coalition. In Ohio, the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $780. In order to afford this level of rent and utilities — without paying more than 30 percent of income on housing — a household must earn $2,600 a month ($31,194 annually). Assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks per year, that comes out to an hourly wage of $15, the coalition said.
As the temperatures dropped and the first major snows of the season fell, Northeast Ohio received a sad reminder of troubles the homeless face in extreme weather. A homeless man and woman were found dead in Cleveland Dec. 14 and are believed to have frozen to death.
In recent years, increased efforts have been made to shelter the homeless during the harshest winter nights. Lake County’s Code Blue was started by St. Mary’s Church in Painesville in 2014.
In that particularly harsh winter, the shelter was open for nearly a month straight, Norman said. The Lake County Continuum of Care has since become involved.
According to the Continuum of Care, the goal of the Code Blue protocol is to notify local service agencies, churches and municipalities that “severe weather in is imminent and thus of the need to provide all homeless persons, sober or not, with a safe haven where they can stay warm.”
Lake County’s Code Blue goes into effect when:
•The air temperatures drop to 10 degrees or less, the wind chill is at zero degrees, or below, or
•When the National Weather Service issues a Winter Storm Warning for Lake County or
•During a significant snow/weather event, as decided by the Continuum of Care, even if the temperature guidelines are not met
The first few Code Blue protocols of the season were initiated during last week’s cold and snowy spell. Norman said the best way to learn if a Code Blue is in effect and for shelter availabilities is to call 211.
In addition to St. Mary’s, Life Brand Cowboy Church in Painesville Township and LifeSpring Christian Church in Painesville are also involved in Code Blue.
Some states have statewide Code Blue laws, but Ohio is not one of them.
Norman said Lake County’s homeless population remained steady. Project Hope for Homeless in Painesville Township remains full even after it expanded, she said.
According to Lake County’s 2017 Point In Time count, there were six households with at least one adult and one child who were homeless. That accounted for 20 people — all sheltered—with 12 kids and eight adults over the age of 24.
There were 59 homeless individuals in households without children, according to the Lake County count. Of those, 37 were sheltered and 22 were unsheltered. Four were young adults 1824 (three sheltered and one unsheltered).
According to Lake County’s data, 38 of the homeless adults had a serious mental illness (24 were sheltered). Eleven had a substance use disorder (eight sheltered) and 21 were victims of domestic violence (11 sheltered).