COLUMBUS – There are fewer homeless Ohioans after six years of a federal program to get more Americans off the streets.
That includes fewer homeless families, fewer homeless veterans and fewer people who suffer from chronic homelessness, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.
From the 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report:
Most homeless people in Ohio (9,266) were in shelters or transitional housing programs
The number of families with children experiencing homelessness (1,392) declined by 28.7%
Unaccompanied homeless youth and children appeared to decline (HUD will launch a more robust effort to accurately account for this population in January of 2017)
Veteran homelessness (930 persons) dropped by 39.1% since 2010 (1,527)
Chronic or long-term homelessness among individuals declined by 67.3% (1,507 persons) -Source: HUD
The report – based on data compiled during a one-day-a-year count — shows the overall number of persons experiencing homelessness in Ohio on a single night in 2016 was 10,404, a 17 decline since 2010, the year the Obama administration began a program to combat homelessness, said HUD Secretary Julián Castro.
Since launching Opening Doors, the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, HUD estimates that Ohio experienced a 29 percent drop in homeless families, a 39 percent decline in veteran homelessness, and a 67 percent drop in the number of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, Castro said.
The national estimate is based upon data reported by approximately 3,000 cities and counties across the nation during their “point-in-time” count, carried out on single night in January by tens of thousands of volunteers.