State tops HUD homeless list
Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/222853/
Gulf Coast residents who evacuated to Arkansas after hurricanes in August and September 2005 pushed the Natural State to the top of the list nationally in terms of the size of its homeless population, according to a report prepared for Congress.
During a January 2006 count, Arkansas reported the highest percentage of its population as homeless among the states, with only the District of Columbia and Guam reporting a higher percentage, the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in its annual Homeless Assessment Report released late last month.
Combined, Arkansas agencies that received federal funding reported 16, 665 homeless people in 2006 — three times more than reported in 2005. Of that number, 11, 771 were reported to be hurricane evacuees taking shelter or living on the streets in the Little Rock area.
“We were definitely a top 10, maybe even a top five location for evacuees,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick, a University of Arkansas sociology professor who holds the Bernice Jones Endowed Chair in Community at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.
He noted many shelters at the time were temporary.
“In a year’s time, you pretty much saw everyone moving out of the places in Arkansas that were being used for those evacuees.”
The single-day count estimated Arkansas’ 2006 homeless population at 0. 59 percent of the state’s 2. 8 million residents. The federal government defines “homeless” as when one doesn’t have a regular, adequate nighttime residence and stays in a shelter or sleeps in a place not ordinarily used for sleeping. Overall, 759, 101 people were said to be homeless in the United States that January night.
HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan suspects Arkansas’ oneday homeless population count declined in 2007 as evacuees left or found permanent housing. Federal officials won’t release new numbers from every state until next year. In 2005, Arkansas ranked in the middle of the states with an estimated homeless population of 0. 20 percent.
It appears no one knows how many evacuees are still homeless in Arkansas, because the Federal Emergency Management Agency tracks only those receiving housing assistance.
In June 2006, FEMA received 1, 152 applications for assistance in Arkansas. By August 2006, FEMA estimated 26, 100 Katrina and Rita evacuees were still here.
Nearly two years later, Pulaski County’s housing agency reports 122 hurricane evacuee families signed up for HUD rental assistance. Between city housing agencies and the county, about 500 families still receive rental assistance in Pulaski County, said Karen Lovelace, the county’s Section 8 housing administrator.
“We do know that there are still homeless evacuees,” said Jamie Deere, who worked as a case management coordinator for Catholic Charities of Arkansas’ hurricane recovery office. “To give you a number [or ] where they are, who knows. It’s very difficult to know because this group is very mobile and with New Orleans being very close, literally a day’s drive.”
Many evacuees the charity helped move back to the New Orleans area returned to Arkansas after they couldn’t find housing or jobs, Deere said. But the majority of the 1, 500 households the center helped had moved into permanent housing, she said. Although Arkansas ’ count was released in a report forwarded to Congress, many familiar with the homelessness issue say the state’s estimate is misleading. “These comparative numbers to state populations are potentially problematic,” said Fitzpatrick, who suggested people should instead look at the bigger picture.
Arkansas, with an estimated population of 2, 810, 872 in 2006, has a relatively small number of homeless compared with California’s 177, 722 homeless residents — a figure amounting to 0. 49 percent of that state’s 36, 457, 549 people.
“So when I look at [the report ], I’m not quite as alarmed at where Arkansas fits in,” he said.
Counts are further skewed because the numbers only come from agencies receiving federal funding, said Sandra Wilson, executive director of Arkansas Supportive Housing Network, an agency that works with the homeless.
The numbers cited in the federal report were taken from funding applications submitted by regional organizations that work with local agencies. But not every group working with the homeless seeks federal funding or interacts with the state’s 10 regional organizations.
Also, groups skipped street counts in 2005 and 2006, so applicants likely estimated or combined previous estimates of unsheltered people with the number of people staying in a shelter the night in January 2006, Wilson said.
“When you’re talking about unsheltered homeless people, that’s where counting gets difficult. Sleeping in abandoned buildings, camps, knowing where they are to find them and count them, it’s just hard to know if you’re getting everybody,” said Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington, D. C. “It’s always going to be an estimate to some extent.”
Counting people without a permanent address is difficult for volunteers because it may not be obvious that someone walking down the street doesn’t have a roof over his head, said William Goliff with the Northwest Arkansas Housing Coalition.
“You don’t usually see children on the street homeless. They’re fairly well hidden,” Goliff said.
When groups in Northwest and central Arkansas tracked down the state’s homeless population in January 2007, they counted 2, 992 homeless people. Surveyors found 1, 822 people without homes in Pulaski, Prairie, Saline and Lonoke counties — 393 more than in 2004.
In Northwest Arkansas, the 2007 estimate was 1, 170 people. Fitzpatrick combined estimates of people doubling up, the number of homeless children schools reported and the 308 adults and 57 children surveyors found at shelters or on the street.
Arkansas’ 2007 homeless population estimate won’t be known until HUD releases a similar congressional report next year. However, 85 Arkansas shelters and social service providers provided 529, 336 separate services to 20, 824 homeless Arkansans in 2007, according to information they entered into the Arkansas Management Information System, a database created five years ago to tally services.
More than half of the services involved food, followed by substance abuse treatment and emergency shelter visits. The statistics become more reliable as another year passes, said Wilson, whose organization oversees the statewide program. Agencies report uniformly, and more groups are signing on.
Even though a percentage of the state’s total is based on “best estimates,” the statistics play a major role in the types of services communities offer the homeless.
Counts also serve as a wakeup call for residents.
“People have sort have gotten too used to the idea that homelessness exists. By sort of figuring out where they are, it just reminds people of the problem,” Berg said.
“If suddenly you have 11, 000 more homeless people than the year before, it helps to quantify that when you’re going to the state legislature... that we need help to solve this problem,” he said.
Older numbers and hurricane evacuees don’t diminish the seriousness of Arkansas ’ ranking, said state Sen. Mary Anne Salmon, D-North Little Rock, who serves on the state’s recently created Task Force for the Study of the Homeless.
“One of the things that we have learned is that everyone in Arkansas who is homeless is not necessarily a native,” she said. “Sometimes people just end up in a state for other reasons.”