FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), over 580,000 people experienced homelessness in the U.S. in 2022, and taking a look at Arkansas, NWA Continuum of Care just released their 2024 Point in Time homelessness data.
While the data shows the numbers have slightly decreased from 2023, Continuum of Care spokesperson Debbie Martin said the data doesn't reflect what she's seeing on a day-to-day basis.
"I don't believe that we have a decrease in our homeless population. If anything, we have an increase, but a lot of times it's just hard to get those surveys," Martin said.
She thinks this has much to do with the fact that the "point in time data" is taken from one single day of the year in January.
"It happened to be about 40 degrees, rainy and gray. The weather was not super conducive for people to be outside. And I believe our numbers reflected that."
7Hills Service Director Joe Coultas said he has seen this reflected at their shelter.
"In my personal experience, the numbers are continuing to go up. We still have new people that come to our Day Resource Center every day that we haven't served before," Coultas said.
So how do we get more people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing? Martin said the missing puzzle piece is access to resources.
"We have to do multi-funding options— definitely resources from HUD— but we need philanthropic efforts. We need to talk about HOME funds and even have conversations with the cities about changing some of the zoning laws," Martin added. "And then perhaps helping with some of that funding. It has to be everybody at the table."
The research also shows about 20% were 55 or older, 142 suffered from a mental health disability, and African Americans and Hispanics in the region are significantly more impacted by homelessness.
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