The Boston Public Health Commission recently released the findings of its 35th annual homeless census, which tracks the homeless population in the city of Boston.

The census found an unsettlingly large increase in the amount of homeless families: the number grew a full 25 percent, up from 1,234 households last year to 1,543 this year. Additionally, the total number of people in those families rose by 20.9 percent, from 3,541 individuals to 4,281.

One piece of good news is that not one of those families was found unsheltered: all were in some form of shelter or transitional program.

One nonprofit working to help this underserved population is FamilyAid Boston, which is Boston’s largest provider of emergency shelters for homeless families. Executive Director of FamilyAid Boston Richard Ring, when asked why he thinks there was such a dramatic increase in the population of homeless families, states: “There’s a growing gap between people with means and people who lack means. When you look at the rents and you look at all the new construction, there’s so much money in the city that it’s pushing [costs] up, and those who don’t have [money] are getting squeezed out.”

According to a report by the nonprofit Brookings Institution, Boston has the third highest rate of income inequality among the 50 largest cities in the United States.

Also, according to a another report by apartment rental website Zumper, Boston has the third highest rental prices in the country, after only New York and San Francisco. These two factors can mean that families, even with both parents working, may not have enough money for a place to stay.

Ring continues, “There’s a story within the story. [The working poor] is a subpopulation within this overall number that is growing and is really posing some concern. There are people who are employed, and working low-paying jobs. They have been housed, but are vulnerable because of that lack of income. If something goes wrong, they lose hours on their job or have a major expense: these are families who are on the edge, and what happens is they start to fall behind in their rent, and they become at risk of being homeless.

“There are so many wage-earners, but their incomes are just at that level that [their situation is] precarious.”

FamilyAid, in cooperation with the City of Boston, runs the Family Emergency Solutions Program, which offers 24/7 emergency services to homeless families. However, in the twenty year existence of this program, there has never been so much demand: Ring called this past year “unprecedented,” and FamilyAid, since they do not have the financial or logistical capabilities to house so many families, needed to start a waitlist for the program. This waitlist now has over 30 households on it.

While no one is completely sure why there has been such a dramatic increase in families needing support this year, Ring has a theory: “The winter was so severe. Especially the breakdown in transportation prevented people from putting in their full amount of work. So as people lose income, what they’re going to do is pay the most pressing bills. Over time, what that can mean is that they fall behind on their rent.”

“Possibly, these are the ramifications of people losing wages in the wintertime,” he concludes.

On February 25, the day the census was given, Mayor Martin J. Walsh led a group of 300 volunteers around the city, who spent the night talking with the homeless population and taking detailed notes. Walsh has been criticized for his decision to close the Long Island Shelter (which housed only individuals and no families) last October after the only access bridge was found to be unsafe. However, with the expansion of the Southampton Street shelter and, in January, the release of his long-term, $73.6 million plan entitled An Action Plan to End Veteran and Chronic Homelessness, he has regained some supporters.

The plan aims to offer more permanent housing solutions: the initial press release states that even though “the task force identified that Boston has one of the lowest rates of urban, unsheltered street homelessness in the United States, as a result of steadily increasing the number of housing units for homeless individuals by targeting resources and committing to new investments,” nevertheless the issue had not been solved. “To truly solve homelessness in Boston, it is imperative for the city and its partner providers to implement critical system reforms,” the press release continues.

It is important to note that the census data was gathered on one night only and, though it certainly reflects a troubling trend, it is not an estimate applicable for every month in the year. Additionally, it reflects the data for a winter rather than a calendar year: for example, the last census was taken on December 16, 2013.

When the city or FamilyAid finds some sort of permanent housing for a family, the next year can be a difficult transition. In collaboration with the City of Boston, FamilyAid participates in the Housing Access Collaborative program, which aims to provide “stabilization” to families.

However, Ring states: “The demand outstripps our ability to do that for everybody.”

When asked how a concerned citizen can help, Ring cites the fact that many families may lack the means to get basic items: “When we help a family move out of a shelter and go into their own apartment, the families have a host of basic housekeeping needs,” he states. “Think of the most basic items people need to manage their lives and think about making some kind of contribution along those lines.”

The post FAMILY HOMELESSNESS: Census results show rise in homeless families appeared first on Spare Change News.

A couple of weeks ago, the 35th annual Boston homeless census was released.

Those of you who know me know how I feel about the census. I have never hidden the fact that I believe it to be inaccurate in every way. And while I hoped that every effort would be made to get this one right after what happened at Long Island, again it came up short.

First, let me give credit where it is due. They did recognize that family homelessness has increased. But the city—and the state, for that matter—act as if family homelessness is a new thing, like a fad or something.

Newsflash. It’s always been a problem. It’s just that now it’s become too big to ignore. As always, the city likes to pound its chest when the census numbers declare that there has been a decrease in single adult homelessness when actually nothing can be further from the truth.

First of all, the volunteers who take the count don’t go into places like alleys or on rooftops etc. My understanding is that they are not allowed to. So they count only what they can see. Maybe the ladies from C.O.P.E. should take the next census. I’d like to see the city tell them they can’t go in an alley.

Also, it’s a known fact that many homeless people go across the bridge when they know the census is being taken. They don’t want to be counted. Why? They don’t believe it will make a difference.

Youth homelessness has increased. But as I said about family homelessness, it’s not a new thing, there are just more of them. And don’t even get me started about the hidden homeless: trust me folks, the census is not accurate. I almost spilled coffee on my brand new laptop while reading Mayor Walsh’s action plan to end homelessness in Boston.

It’s modeling itself after Houston’s housing first model. Without getting heavily into the details, here’s the deal: You give someone who is in a shelter, say, $6,000 and they go find housing, then they get the services they need to maintain said housing. I’ll give you one simple reason why that is folly: What happens when the money runs out and this person has no income? I’m not talking disability or any other monetary subsidy. That won’t cut it. When these folks get the six grand, they are going to be paying market rent. No one knows if the mayor’s plan is prepared for that. Boston rents are far higher than Houston’s.

With no back-up plan or supportive services, this person will be right back on the streets in say … six months. The only people who are benefiting from this plan are—drum roll please—those who work in the shelter system. Finally, at a hearing last week with some Boston City Council members attended by the Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee, Boston Warm and other groups and city representatives, one of the city councilors posed a question to the city about who made the decision to close Long Island shelter after four hours notice back on October 8.

Interim Head of the Boston Public Health Commission, Dr. Huy Nguyen, promptly fell on his sword and took full responsibility for the decision. His bunk mates didn’t have much to say. The mayor finally got his fall guy. Dr. Nguyen apologized for “his mistake” but if the mayor think he’s off the hook, he’s sadly mistaken. At some point, he and his Olympic cronies will have to answer for what happened on that island.

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At last year’s point in time count—the city’s annual homeless census where groups of volunteers physically count the homeless folks they see in the streets—Mayor Marty Walsh had recently announced the City of Boston functionally ended veteran homelessness. This year, to a crowd of 400 volunteers, he announced that two-and-a-half years of housing first initiatives resulted in Boston housing 1,056 people, including 717 veterans.

The next step, says Walsh, is realizing his goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2018.

His 2018 initiative was developed a year after closing the Long Island bridge in 2014, which displaced clients of a 450 bed homeless shelter and over 100 more clients of substance abuse treatment programs. In 2015, the Long Island shelter was replaced with the Southampton Street shelter, Woods-Mullen was converted to a women’s only shelter, and the city created a coordinated access database to help match homeless clients with the programs that could help them most (for example, assisted living for those with disabilities, or treatment programs for those in recovery).

“Housing first is a great model, but without coordinated access to services you’re setting folks up for failure,” said Walsh.

The city has also seen positive results from a series of “housing surges” that connect senior shelter clients to housing providers, finding homes for 50 seniors.

Recently, Walsh also submitted a package of bills to the State House to prevent displacement and compensate landlords.

Despite such efforts, the Mayor still faces criticism when it comes to affordable housing. As one homeless man told the mayor, blocks away from City Hall, it feels like the poor are being pushed out while condos are being built everywhere.

The Brookings Institute labeled Boston the most economically unequal city in the country. WBZ reported that renters need to earn $124,000 a year to afford a two bedroom apartment in Boston. The mayor also drew ire for past bids to host the 2024 Olympics and IndyCar. Critics of the Boston 2024 push—announced weeks after Long Island’s closure—noted the Olympic Games’ history of displacement and gentrification. Recently, the city’s deal with General Electric—which saw Boston offering $25 million over 20 years in a property tax break to the corporation—has made activists question Walsh’s commitments to those with lower incomes.

Affordbale housing and the GE deal have been early talking points for city councilor Tito Jackson, the only challenger in the upcoming mayoral race. “We gave money to GE to build a bridge for their employees, while saying we didn’t have enough money to rebuild the bridge and help the folks who were on Long Island. That is not the Boston I grew up in,” Jackson said in his first campaign speech.

At any rate, the Mayor’s efforts have also garnered praise. Matt Pritchard, the executive director of HomeStart, a nonprofit that helps find housing for homeless, called the city’s work “incredible” during the homeless census.

Mayor Walsh noted there may be other concerns on the horizon. Earlier that day, he responded to President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking federal funding to sanctuary cities like Boston, which help prevent local police officers from handing undocumented immigrants over to immigration enforcement. At a press conference, Walsh said “We will do everything lawful in our power to protect you. If necessary, we will use City Hall itself to shelter’ and protect anyone who’s targeted unjustly.”

During the count, Walsh told Spare Change News “I’m worried about undocumented immigrants ending up on the streets. They’ll just go deeper and deeper underground they’ll have nowhere else to go.”

When asked if he was concerned about potential cuts to Department of Housing and Urban Development—which was already giving cities a sparse budget under former president Barrack Obama—Mayor Walsh admitted he was concerned about HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s lack of experience in housing.

For the evening, however, Walsh concerned himself more with meeting people out on the street. Some were friendly, some stoic, some complained—one challenged members of his team to sleep outside in the cold.

Many of the stories heard in the streets sound familiar. Miguel, 51, a veteran, has been in and out of veteran housing since he was discharged in 1992. He rarely had enough money left over after paying his rent—usually a bit over $100—and it wouldn’t last long. “I had to choose between paying the rent and eating,” he said. Another veteran a block away suffered from psychological issues and a criminal record that makes finding housing difficult. “[Prison] really messed me up,” he said.

Danielle, 29, prefers the streets to strict rules of shelters, even in rain or snow. But she still complains that city workers and police harass her.

In the Downtown Crossing station, the mayor met a 21 year old woman who was undergoing methadone treatment. She pointed out that while some criticize the treatment, the bigger issue is that “people are dying” from the opioid epidemic.

Each one hopes that city hears their stories. The city will at least use the numbers they learn that night, namely to apply for federal funding and plan their own responses to homelessness.

Last year’s point in time count showed the homeless population had grown in both the streets and shelters. They found 167 people in the streets—a 20 percent increase from 2015—and 1,825 in shelters—a 3.5 percent increase.

The numbers from this year’s count will be revealed later this year.

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