It may just have been the weather — or it may reflect a deeper problem.
Either way, the latest statistics on homelessness in New Haven show the number of people living outside without shelter leaping over the past year.
At least that’s the finding of the annual “point in time” count conducted by the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH). Each year, Connecticut’s group, like others across the country, wanders the streets to count the number of people sleeping outside, as well as those in shelters.
This year’s report, released Tuesday, showed 625 people homeless on the night of this past Jan. 26, 138 of them children. That represented a 10 percent increase over last year’s total of 567.
A bigger increase — 52.7 percent— came in the number of homeless people found sleeping outside rather than in shelters that night: from 69 in 2016 to 105 in 2016.
The weather was probably a factor, according to both CCEH Executive Director Lisa Tepper Bates and Alison Cunningham, who runs New Haven’s Columbus House. It just so happened that Jan. 26 this year was some 20 degrees warmer than the date of the count in 2015.
But both of them believe other factors may have contributed, as well. Tepper Bates noted that New Haven has the tightest rental market in the state. Affordable housing is scarce.
Cunningham agreed, and added: “I’m a little bit surprised that the numbers increased as much as they did. I think some of it has to be choice about shelter — whether to go in or not. Some people like us and some people don’t. I think that all of those things factor into the increase.”
Overall, the report had good news: Homelessness was down 4 percent overall from a year earlier in Connecticut, and down 13 percent since 2007, with 3,902 individuals total counted on Jan. 26. (Click here to read the full report.) And the state has ended chronic homelessness among veterans. It is working toward ending chronic homelessness, period, by the end of 2016.
“We’re very close to doing that. In terms of the rental market, it is very tight, and we have to be a little bit patient and keep our eyes open and be diligent and get these folks housed as we are able,” Cunningham said.
New Haven agencies have united in the past two years both to help homeless people and move them into long-term housing, as discussed in this story and this story. Click on or download the above sound file to listen to a recent WNHH “Dateline New Haven” episode on the subject.