Homelessness Data in the Capital Region
Mirroring national trends, the current housing crisis and recession have contributed significantly to a rise in homelessness in the Capital Region. For many loss of individual income as result of reduced hours and/or eliminated jobs makes maintaining housing difficult. Households which never expected to rely on housing and social service supports are seeking financial assistance in order to remain in their home, increasing the strain on already limited resources. As a result, transition into housing for those who are already homeless or in emergency shelters takes longer and is even more complicated.
Many of the Capital Region’s Homeless population remain hidden from public view. They are single parents with children, youth who have aged out of the foster system, veterans who face challenges readjusting to civilian life, individuals who lost their housing due to layoffs or medical crises, victims of domestic violence seeking safety, rural families forced to double up with family and friends, and seniors who are unable to ends meet with the rise in medical costs increase or after losing their spouse.
In 2010, a record number of household, over 12,000, received services from homeless service providers*. Thirty five percent of these households were families including nearly 9,000 children. The number of households in need in the Capital Region has grown at an alarming rate just over the past four years. Data from the Capital Region Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) indicates that the total number of households receiving homeless and housing related services increased 100% since 2007. The rise in the number of families and children served over the four years is particularly concerning. Family homelessness jumped from 1,523 in 2007 to 4,316 in October 2010, a 183% increase, with the number of children in families jumping from 3,090 to 8,981, a 191% increase. During this same time period, the number of two-parent families more than quintupled; 228 two-parent families received homeless services in 2007 while 1,116 in 2010.
This year alone, between January and October, approximately 7200 people were counted in the HMIS as having no place to sleep and seeking emergency shelter. This number, staggering as it is, underestimates the true number of people needing shelter because it does NOT include victims of domestic violence, persons who are doubled up or living in substandard housing, and persons who do not present to agencies for services.
Another population whose numbers are increasing is that of homeless veterans. The two largest veterans’ service organizations, the Albany Housing Coalition and the Saratoga County Rural Preservation Corporation, assisted 663 homeless veterans just this year, with two month to go. Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan face many difficulties as they transition back to civilian life. For some, these challenges are too great for them to be able to maintain their housing. In the recent years we have seen a steady rise in the number of homeless veterans; this is a trend that we expect to see continue as more and more service members return to the Capital Region.
Senior Citizens, many of whom are on fixed incomes, are seeking emergency shelter or financial supports to maintain their housing as competing bills make paying rent even more difficult. Others have found themselves homeless, despite paying rent, when the apartments they were living in were foreclosed on due to the financial difficulties of real estate speculators or absentee landlords.
While these numbers and trends are alarming, the Capital Region has the benefit of a well-established and innovative system of homeless service agencies. Within each of our counties is a full continuum of homeless services beginning with programs aimed at preventing homelessness through the provision of emergency and financial assistance and ending with the sought after goal of providing permanent housing with linkages to ongoing supports to remain stably housed. The capacity of our Capital Region agencies and programs is insufficient to meet the demand for their services, especially in these tough economic times, but the quality of their work and the dedication of their staff are unquestioned.
* CARES Inc., www.caresny.org, is the administrator of the Capital Region HMIS, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandated MIS, and has been tracking data through this source since 2004. HMIS data does not include victims of domestic violence, persons who are doubled up or living in substandard housing, and persons who do not present to agencies for services.
