COHHIO Points to 'Dwindling' Affordable Housing for Rise in Homelessness

Homelessness, particularly among youth, is increasing in Ohio, the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) said Tuesday, citing reports by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA).

The HUD report showed a 1.5 percent increase to 10,249 homeless Ohioans in January 2018, the first increase "in many years," COHHIO said, but the "much more comprehensive" OHFA study showed a 20 percent increase in the number of people seeking assistance from the state's homeless services agencies since 2012, for a total of 70,123 in 2017.

Nearly 30 percent of those accessing homeless services in 2017 were minors, OHFA found, including 2,943 infants at an increase of 53 percent since 2012. While HUD's report was based on the point-in-time count for one night in January, OHFA studied the number of people accessing shelters, supportive housing and other services during the entire year.

COHHIO Executive Director Bill Faith said that rising rate of homelessness could be linked to "the dwindling supply of affordable housing" in Ohio, and that it was "remarkable" there wasn't a greater increase in homelessness due to a growing gap between rents and incomes.

"Communities have managed to minimize the increase by adopting more effective methods to prevent homelessness for at-risk families and quickly restore housing when people lose their homes," Faith said. Nearly 400,000 Ohio households spend more than half of their income on rent, though, and COHHIO said that will overwhelm local homeless agencies if state and federal leaders don't take more action to promote affordable housing.

COHHIO called for Gov.-elect Mike DeWine's administration and the 133rd General Assembly to expand the Ohio Housing Trust Fund in 2019 and allocate a "modest portion" of Ohio's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding to support effective services for families such as rapid rehousing, as there is a $500 million surplus in TANF funds.

"We commend the focus on improving early childhood education. But we know it’s very difficult for kids who are homeless, living in a car or a shelter, to do well in school without access to stable housing," Faith said. "The good news is strategies that reduce homelessness also position Ohio to make progress on education and other public policy issues, like health care, child welfare and the economy."