Survey: County’s homeless population continues to drop

Charity leaders are celebrating news this week that Mecklenburg County’s overall homeless population dropped in the past year, based on a new report by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute.

The decrease from 2014 to 2015 was small – 1 percent – but it’s the latest in a series of annual drops. Since 2010, the city has seen a 29 percent decrease in people living on its streets, the report says.

Homeless advocates see the ongoing decline as proof Charlotte is on the right track with new tactics that include better coordination among charities, and programs focused on specific segments of the homeless population. Among those programs are efforts to help chronically homeless, veterans and homeless families get more quickly into housing.

“This is the fourth year of consecutive decreases in overall homelessness,” said Liz Clasen-Kelly of the Urban Ministry Center.

“You’ve got to keep in mind what the American economy has been doing during those four years and keep in mind that our community (population) has been growing. So, yeah, would we have liked to have seen a bigger decrease? Sure. But overall, this is evidence that when you invest in housing and best practices, you reap the benefits.”

Among the successes were decreases in people living in transitional housing programs and decreases in families with adults and children, though the number of families living in Salvation Army Center of Hope actually increased from 337 in 2014 to 401 in 2015. The 401 included 212 children.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Coalition for Housing worked with the Urban Ministry to collect the data as part of the annual Point in Time count. That effort is designed to show how many people are homeless in Mecklenburg County on a single day. Teams were sent out on Jan. 29 to count the homeless on the streets, in shelters, transitional housing and the Mecklenburg County jail.

Overall, 2,001 homeless people were counted during the 24 hours. There were 280 chronically homeless people, a segment of the population suffering from addictions and disabilities that keep them homeless for years.

The chronically homeless are the subject of an initiative unveiled earlier this year to house that segment of the population by the end of 2016. Initiatives are also underway to help homeless veterans and homeless families.

Organizers of the homeless count believe some of the increases revealed this year are due to a more comprehensive approach to the annual count, including using more volunteers to go into camps and other homeless enclaves that are tough to find.

“We have made great strides,” said Josie Mazzaferro, of the Charlotte-Meckenburg Coalition for Housing. “The results also show there is still work to be done.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Survey: County’s homeless population continues to drop."