No one can say what this year’s count will bring, but Dayton’s homeless shelters saw an increase in guests this past fall, including record numbers of children.
“Numbers were higher across the whole country last year, and unsheltered numbers also were a lot higher across the whole country,” said Kathleen Shanahan, program coordinator for Montgomery County Homeless Solutions.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Six teams of volunteers are fanning out across Montgomery County early this morning to count the number of unsheltered people.
Volunteers will try to find people who are sleeping on the streets and staying in abandoned buildings, wooded areas and cars. Team members will check under overpasses, along rail lines and at 24-hour businesses like diners and laundromats.
During the day, volunteers will visit area meal service sites, such as House of Bread and Target Dayton Ministries, and other places that provide aid, to try to identify homeless individuals.
The count is a one-night snapshot of what homelessness looks like in this community and communities across the nation, Shanahan said. The count helps determine how well local resources match up against the scourge of homelessness.
“Where we really are not meeting the need is with safe, affordable housing,” Shanahan said. “That’s the answer to homelessness: It’s housing — housing and then the services to be able to help people who need additional supports to remain housed.”
The one-night count also is required of communities that receive federal funding to address homelessness from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The point-in-time count from January 2023 identified 771 people who were living on the streets or staying in emergency shelters. That was up from 570 people in 2022 (+35%). The numbers were 642 individuals in 2020 and 577 in 2019.
Last year’s tally was the highest ever recorded, since at least 2006.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
The number of people staying in emergency shelters jumped 25% between January 2022 and January 2023.
But the number of unsheltered people skyrocketed, increasing from 37 to 107.
Some people think that homelessness is mainly a downtown Dayton problem, but there are people struggling with housing instability across the entire county, Shanahan said.
Local organizations are working together to try to make homelessness rare, brief and one-time, she said.
It’s unclear why exactly the local homeless population grew so much last year.
One factor may be that COVID-era aid and benefit-program expansions came to an end. Evictions increased after a moratorium expired, and rental assistance dried up.
COVID had a significant impact on the unsheltered population, partly because some people did not feel comfortable staying in a congregate setting like an emergency shelter, said Heather Wilson, program services director at Miami Valley Housing Opportunities, which provides outreach services and housing to the unsheltered population.
Mental health issues also often play a role when it comes to why people are living on the streets, said Wilson, who is leading the volunteer team in charge of the point-in-time count for downtown Dayton.
In addition to counting unsheltered individuals, volunteers also carry basic necessities and essential items to distribute, and they try to connect homeless community members to helpful services and resources, Wilson said.
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