Local homelessness up for families, down overall-WEB ONLY

The number of homeless families in the state’s most-populous county grew by 78 percent this year, an official count shows, but the actual number is several times higher, an advocacy group said yesterday. Meanwhile, the total of homeless individuals has declined.

The Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention said a federally required homeless count on Jan. 29 turned up 1,454 people, including 213 families, living in emergency shelters, transitional housing or on the street in Indianapolis.

The total was down 5 percent from 1,524 counted in January 2008 and 22 percent from the 1,868 in 2007. The count tallied 120 homeless families in 2008.

The count was limited to Indianapolis and Marion County but provided a snapshot of homelessness and the recession’s growing effect on families in Indiana’s largest city. Figures from a statewide homeless count are not available yet.

The count turned up 359 school-age children in those families, but more than eight times as many school-age children in Marion County, a total of 2,932, qualify for federal homeless programs, showing the number of homeless people is many times larger than that turned up in the annual winter count.

Tim Joyce, the coalition’s executive director, said unemployment was fueling homelessness.

“We have all heard for years that lots of families live paycheck to paycheck. Now that they’re not getting that next paycheck when their job is lost, they’re living family to family, friend to friend and shelter to shelter,” Joyce said.

The count is required at least every other year during the last two weeks of January by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for every community receiving federal funds for programs to aid homeless people. It does not count families and other homeless people living in hotels or motels or “doubling up” with relatives or friends.

Joyce said a more accurate perspective on homelessness is provided by the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which requires schools to identify homeless students and provide services to them.

The report, prepared by Indiana University’s Center for Health Policy, found 2,932 Marion County students receiving McKinney-Vento services, including 1,529 in the Indianapolis Public Schools. It said 2,671 of those students countywide were doubled up in others’ homes.

Joyce said he believed the count would have tallied more people if not for the harsh weather on Jan. 29, when the high temperature was 16 and a snowstorm had just blanketed Indianapolis with more than a foot of snow.

“When it’s that bad out, people find someplace to go,” Joyce said.

About a quarter of the total counted were younger than 18 and 40 percent were ages 31-51, the report said.

The Indiana Department of Child Services had no comment on the report, spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said.

Some of the report’s other findings:

– A quarter of the homeless people reported having a job, but losing a job was the top reason for homelessness, affecting 385 people. Evictions put 213 people out of their homes, and foreclosures another 33.

– Nearly half of the total, 712, stayed in emergency shelters the night of the count, 555 were in transitional housing, and 187 were on the streets.

– Half were black and 36 percent were white.

– More than a quarter, 414, had chronic substance abuse problems, 306 were severely mentally ill, 240 were military veterans, and 276 were victims of domestic abuse.

The last statewide count in 2007 tallied 7,358 homeless people, including 1,262 living on the streets.