Durham homeless increase in tight times

DURHAM -- The economy has pushed more people in Durham into homelessness, advocates said at a news conference Thursday.

A "point-in-time count," Jan. 27 to 28, found 675 people on the streets or in shelters, up 26 percent from the 535 counted a year ago.

The number of homeless families increased from 34 to 51.

"This is a snapshot of what homelessness in Durham looks like in one night," said Terry Allebaugh, chairman of the Council to End Homelessness in Durham.

Of special concern, Mayor Bill Bell noted, the count included 84 homeless children.

Several speakers tied the increase to a local unemployment rate that rose from 3.9 percent in December 2007 to 7.9 percent in December 2009.

To underline that point, about 30 demonstrators chanted "What do we want? Jobs! When do we want them? Now!" outside the old courthouse downtown. They marched upstairs to the county commissioners' chamber before the news conference announcing the numbers began.

"I saw the signs," Bell said. Finding jobs will continue to be a "struggle," he said, but "there are some bright spots."

A new federal stimulus program has kept seven families from becoming homeless and rehoused 13 families and separate individuals, Bell said. Over the next year, he said, it should end homelessness for more than 100 families.

Anita Oldham, director of the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition, said fewer homeless people are now in emergency shelters and more in "transitional" housing moving toward independence.

In 2007, 60 percent of the homeless counted were in emergency shelters such as Urban Ministries of Durham or the Durham Rescue Mission. That fell to 43 percent this year.

"Our continuum of services for homeless people really is working," she said.

Among other pluses:

Permanent supportive housing" for disabled people has risen from 65 beds in 2007 to 163.

The number of "chronically homeless," 142, fell as a percentage of the overall homeless population from 27 percent to 21 percent. Chronic means a person has been homeless for a year or more or has had four or more periods of homelessness in the past three years.

Fewer of the homeless had been recently discharged from jail, hospitals or addiction treatment: 168 in 2010 versus 268 in 2009. Institutional discharges without placement into jobs, job training and/or housing is often blamed for rising homelessness.