HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 03-15 Dip in state’s homeless numbers is 1st since ’06 PIONEER PRESS 3/15/2016 Main
Dip in state's homeless numbers is 1st since '06
> Homeless numbers
Better survey methods may explain increase in Ramsey County
By Maja Beckstrom
mbeckstrom g,12ioneer2ress.eom
Homelessness in Minnesota is down for the first time since the Great Recession, according to the Wilder
Foundation, which goes out on a single night in October once every three years and counts people in
shelters and without housing.
Ramsey County, however, saw a slight increase.
"It's a little bit of a hopeful sign, that things might be getting better," said Michelle Gerrard, co-director
of 2015 Homelessness in Minnesota. "There have been a lot of resources and people trying to provide
more options for people experiencing homelessness. Some of those efforts are appearing to have an
impact."
In the 2015 snapshot, volunteers counted 9,312 homeless adults, youths and children, down 9 percent
from 2012. The number of homeless has gone up nearly every three years since 1991, when Wilder
started the survey. The homeless population remained relatively flat from 2000 to 2006 and then jumped
through 2012 as people lost jobs and housing following the recession. Monday's decline were greeted
with relief by advocates, who got an inkling last year that things might be improving in the annual
homeless survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 2015 HUD
report found 7,546 people homeless in Minnesota, a nearly 10 percent overall decline from 2014,
including a 17 percent drop in the number of homeless
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families with children. The two separate counts "show consistent trends," said Cathy ten Broeke, the
state's director to Prevent and End Homelessness. "I think it tells us we're bending the curve down on
homelessness in Minnesota."
The Wilder survey last fall counted 3,296 homeless children with parents, down 7 percent from 2012.
The number of homeless families was 1,542, down 12 percent. Children with parents still account for
about a third of the overall homeless population.
The survey also found youth on their own (age 24 and younger) make up 16 percent of the homeless
population. The number of homeless adults age 22-54 decreased 13 percent since 2012 to 4,108 in 2015.
More elderly people, however, are in shelters, up 8 percent since 2012 to 843 in 2015, though that growth
mirrors the growth of older people in the overall population.
Hennepin County, with the state's largest homeless population, had 3,665 people in the single-night
count, down 15 percent from 2012. Ramsey County, however, saw its homeless numbers rise 15 percent
to 1,787 people. The increase may be partly explained by Ramsey County's improved ability to find
homeless people who are staying with friends or family or sleeping in a garage or their car, said Gerrard.
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"Ramsey County made a concerted effort to find people who aren't in shelter, and it was more organized
and targeted than it was in 2012," she said. Some advocates also say Hennepin County, which has a
"right to shelter"policy for families, may also be doing a better job of moving people into housing.
"There have been targeted investments, especially in Hennepin County, to get families into housing and
provide intense family services," said Kenza Hadj-Moussa, communications director for the Minnesota
Coalition for the Homeless. "It's tough in the east metro; there aren't many options."
Ramsey County has done better at tracking and supporting homeless families since it started a single,
coordinated intake process in 2014, said Sara Liegl, director of Project Home, which runs a mobile
shelter with 40 cots that rotates among east metro churches. The other main shelter for families is the 65-
bed Family Service Center in Maplewood, run by Catholic Charities. Both are full every night.
"We know that for our families, the recession has dragged on," Liegl said. "If they're getting jobs,
they're minimum wage, not enough to really survive on. We have a dad with three kids in here. The
oldest is developmentally disabled. They had been `couch hopping' and were on a wait list for three
weeks before they got in here. On the last three nights, they slept in the skyways of St. Paul. The dad said
he'd wait until the cleaning crew went through and then sneak down the corridor and that's where they'd
sleep. He hadn't really slept in days when he came to us."
The Wilder Foundation also conducts in-depth interviews with people who are homeless, and insights
from the interviews will be released later this spring.
"I'm really interested in looking at employment rates to see if we've made some headway in getting
people into jobs," Gerrard said. "Also, in our 2012 study, 35 percent of the homeless were on a waiting
list for subsidized housing. Another 15 percent couldn't get onto a wait list because the wait lists were
closed. I want to see if that's gone down."
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