The Lee County Homeless Coalition’s annual point-in-time census finds the number of homeless individuals and families declined from last year.
The count is a tally of who was homeless the night of January 31. The count provides local service providers with a picture of what homelessness looks like year-round and helps them identify what services are needed. This year’s count identified 638 homeless individuals. That’s a decline of 27 percent from last year’s count.
“Our chronic number (number of chronically homeless) also decreased by 21 percent and our number of homeless veterans decreased by 48 percent,” said Homeless Coalition executive director Janet Bartos.
“Families were also down 35 percent. So the lower numbers are very encouraging.”
The point-in-time count along with data from the Lee County Homeless Management Information System finds that an estimated 2,816 homeless people reside in Lee County over the course of the year.
“We kind of feel like the biggest reason for the decline is the improved economy,” said Bartos. “The unemployment rate’s gone down, there’s more jobs available. But I would also contribute some of the decrease to many of our programs.”
Those programs include a rapid rehousing program and services for veterans.
The point-in-time count is a requirement of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and helps bring in federal funding from HUD. In January, HUD officials announced that service providers in Lee County would receive more than $2 million to sustain 11 programs addressing the needs of the homeless.
Bartos says the numbers are encouraging, but points out that shelters in Lee County continue to operate at full capacity.