Still, a few question how accurately those numbers depict the problem.
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In Minnesota, Hennepin County counted the most progress on that category, ten Broeke said, thanks in part to a strategy called the Stable Families Initiative. In southwest Minnesota, the number of people in shelters and on the streets rose from 73 to 124, a 70 percent bump over those five years.
JC: The evidence is compelling that the reverse is true – that providing housing immediately allows them to take the responsibility of looking or employment and addressing other personal issues that can get them on the right path. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). “Some vets have been waiting far too long to get placed, and I am grateful this funding will help speed up the process and ensure our vets in New Jersey expediently find a permanent place to call home”.
Millions of Americans face a similar situation, doubling up with family and friends because they can’t afford anything else.
At the state level, homelessness in Texas went down 36 percent between 2010 and 2015. Between 2010 and January 2015, family homelessness declined by 19 percent.
The report is the latest national one-night estimate of homelessness, which highlights a continuing decline across the nation over time. But the Department of Education says the numbers are going up. “It could be just a year where volunteers didn’t count as many”.
The City Council this week declared a shelter crisis, and laid plans for expanding its winter shelter program and for authorizing people who live in their cars and RVs to sleep in church parking lots.
Still, the report shows that there was little progress done to help people that live permanently on the street.
In Austin, HUD said homelessness is down a slightly less than eight percent.
That’s because the administration wants to end homelessness among veterans this year – a goal that looks increasingly unreachable. More than 47 thousand of them were veterans.
Homelessness is down across the nation as well as in Texas, and also to a lesser degree in Austin. In January 2015, an estimated 564,708 people were homeless on a given night.
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“And if you’re trying to solve an emergent problem, which is in front of you every day, the data that you need needs to be as real-time as the problem is”, Sandor says. HUD is also working with communities to improve collection to better understand the size and scope of homelessness, including efforts like youth engagement and collaboration with schools and other youth-serving systems. They are at the mercy of the people with whom they are staying and can be asked to leave at a moment’s notice and never know how long they can stay. Only 123 of them found permanent, affordable housing.
