Newark may have found a fix for chronic homelessness
ON A SINGLE night every January, volunteers all over America search parks, woodlands, subway tunnels and pavements to count those without shelter. It is part of the annual count mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The point-in-time count results were released, at last, on December 15th. Roughly 650,000 people were homeless, a 12% increase over the year before. The count is the highest since reporting began in 2007. The snapshot is useful for spotting trends and attracting federal funding. Most experts agree it is an undercount and often out of date.
After seeing their own figures for homelessness increase by 20% between 2022 and early 2023, New Jersey officials were shocked into action. Officials tweaked existing programmes and spent more on rental assistance for those at risk of becoming homeless. More services for people living rough has led to a rise in sheltered homelessness. The state also gathers near-real-time data, rather than taking an annual snapshot. In November New Jersey’s Office of Homelessness Prevention released its own figures. They showed unsheltered homeless falling across the state by 23% year on year.
Newark, New Jersey’s largest city and home to the state’s largest homeless population, recorded the biggest decrease. A year ago Ras Baraka, the mayor, unveiled a plan bringing together state, local and private-sector financial support to reduce street homelessness, improve the shelter system and expand housing and prevention services. Mobile crisis teams, behavioural-health providers, community leaders and the police formed a coalition. It seems to be working. Newark has achieved a 58% reduction in unsheltered homeless since the start of the year.
2023-12-20 08:42:15
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