Point-in-time numbers released

The 2007 Triangle Point-In-Time Count conducted on January 24 revealed there are currently 1,806 homeless men, women and children in the Triangle living on the streets and in homeless shelters. The one-night count conducted by outreach workers, police officers, housing providers and volunteers throughout Durham, Orange and Wake counties further revealed:

· 1043 were homeless in Wake County
· 539 were homeless in Durham County
· 224 were homeless in Orange County

Domestic violence, underemployment and unemployment, substance abuse and mental illness might lead to homelessness; however, it is these factors coupled with the lack of affordable housing that creates homelessness. Craig Chancellor, CEO of Triangle United Way, says, “Data from the Census demonstrates that we need over 45,000 units of housing to help offset the gap created when you compare the number of people who need affordable rental units and the actual number of units available in the Triangle.”

While the number of homeless people across the Triangle seems to fluctuate between a low of 1,720 individuals in 2006 to a high of 1,992 in 2004, there is one trend that seems to be moving in a positive direction. In 2003, there were 482 chronic homeless people in the region. In 2006 this had dropped to 399, and in January of this year, that number seems to have dropped to 245.

Through partnerships in Durham, Orange and Wake counties, 10-Year Plans to prevent and end homelessness are taking shape and communities are being mobilized for change to move from managing homelessness to ending homelessness. All three plans have strategies designed to increase the number of affordable housing units that are being built in the community. All three plans have strategies designed to work with the chronically homeless. Chronically homeless individuals are disabled and have been homeless for an extended period of time, they are among the most difficult to serve. Housing eludes those who have either come to distrust the system as a result of a mental illness or been challenged by ongoing substance abuse. Chronically homeless individuals do not have access to the income necessary to sustain permanent housing; housing that is too expensive.