The number of chronic homeless people in Asheville is down 25 percent from the last year, according to figures from the city of Asheville and Buncombe County. However, perhaps driven by the state of the economy, the overall number of homeless rose by 5 percent. The area may get some federal stimulus money to combat the problem.
According to a recent count, there are approximately 555 homeless people in the area, with 115 chronically homeless. The numbers come from the annual Point in Time Homeless Count, completed by the city and county on Jan. 28 and supported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The decline in the number of chronic homeless stems from actions taken as part the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, a joint effort by the city, county and local nonprofits that has placed 231 homeless people — including about 100 chronically homeless — in permanent housing, according to plan Director Amy Sawyer.
“That’s a major priority for us: getting them off the streets,” Sawyer said, attributing much of the success to the plan’s Housing Support Team, which was one of three such efforts in the state to get about $300,000 over two years in an effort to pursue a “housing first” model aimed at ending the chronically homeless problem.
The formerly chronically homeless that now have housing include 20 families and 31 children, according to the new figures.
The support team may receive a further boost this year, as Sawyer told Xpress that she’d recently been notified that about $500,000 in federal grants from the recently passed economic-stimulus package is designated to help with the homelessness problem in Asheville, especially in preventing the already poor from becoming homeless.
But where is the overall increase in the homeless numbers coming from?
“I don’t know,” Sawyer said. “Anecdotally, we’ve had a lot more requests for assistance with food, for help paying rent and utility costs so they don’t become homeless. A lot of the working poor are really being hit hard right now.”
She added that she hopes to eventually have all agencies in the area participate in the Homeless Management Information System to more accurately track and count the homeless population. That process is moving along, with a release from the plan’s officials noting that this year, 48 percent of the homeless counted were recorded in HMIS, while in 2008, only 12 percent were in the system.
— David Forbes, staff writer
This is great news. Our 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness in Asheville is working, and as long as we continue supporting the Plan. We can end chronic homelessness in Asheville.
If the area actually paid fair wages against rising home prices and rentals, we wouldn’t have a problem.
Send em to spartanburg!
It’s essential that new low income/affordable housing is constructed. I know there’s now money to be made from creating such housing. However, the benefits to the community are numerous. Imagination what could be done with the 12 billion dollars a week, being spent on war in Iraq & Afghanistan. The real question is do we as individuals & a community value the lives of the poor, as much as our own?
The answer to your question re: do others value themselves more is an unfortunate yes, they do. If we as a community or for that part, as a nation, joined together to address this social issue, (as well as the many others we have) and put an end to the over-priced homes, under-paid jobs and overall GREED factor of our entire country, then maybe we would be able to stop homelessness. But until a large majority of Americans CHANGE their way of thinking, it will always be a struggle. I am glad to see that Asheville is being pro-active though. A little bit of effort goes along way. I would love to see a community filled with affordable priced housing, community gardens, shared transportation, food-co-ops, etc.