(Renée C. Lee, Houston Chronicle)
Houston’s homeless population has declined 14 percent from last year, according to official numbers released from the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County on Tuesday.
The coalition counted 7,356 homeless on Jan. 31, compared with 8,538 homeless on Jan. 31, 2011. The annual point-in-time count, which is required by the federal government for funding purposes, gives a snapshot of unsheltered and sheltered homelessness on a given night. Job loss was the leading factor for 35 percent of the homeless counted, the coalition said.
When the definition of homeless is expanded to include those sheltered in transitional housing, living in permanent supportive housing and incarcerated in the Harris County Jail, the total number of homeless in the Houston area is 11,848. That’s a 14.5 percent decrease from last year, the enumeration report says. This dip comes a year after the Houston area saw a 25 percent increase from 2010 to 2011, resulting in the region being named a priority by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal agency has provided the coalition help to reduce homelessness.
“The Coalition for the Homeless works with numerous area service providers every day to prevent and end homelessness in our region,” coalition president and CEO Marilyn Brown wrote in a prepared statement. “Through their efforts, we have seen a drop in the homeless population in Houston. We remain committed to ending the cycle of chronic homelessness in our region.”
Houston’s federal funding will not be affected by the decline, Brown said. The city’s unsheltered homeless number is still significantly higher than cities in the rest of the country, and that’s a concern to federal officials, she said. “We still have a very long way to go before it will reduce our federal dollars,” Brown said. Funding, however, could be reduced if there are federal budget cuts, she warned.
(Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle)
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