BOISE, Idaho — A recent Point-in-Time Count found 687 people are experiencing "literal" homelessness in Ada County - 67 more than last year.
The Point-in-Time Count is done every year to figure out how many people are experiencing homelessness across the country.
Our Path Home is a public-private collaboration that monitors, implements and manages homelessness response throughout Ada County. The group was tasked with conducting the annual Point-in-Time Count in the county.
Overnight on Jan. 25, they made the count - along with other groups across the state and country - to get a better understand of how many people are experiencing what they call "literal" homelessness.
"We say 'literal' homelessness, because what the Continuum of Care deals with are people who are living on the streets, people are who living in shelters, people who are living in their cars - and then are subsequently housed through our programs or otherwise," Our Path Home Manager Case Mattoon said. "There's a larger concept of homelessness and housing instability that includes folks who are doubled up, that includes folks who are in a hotel for a day to several days."
Out of the 687 people experiencing "literal" homelessness, 572 were in shelters, and 115 were unsheltered.
The total number of people experiencing homelessness is up 6% since 2020, but has overall decreased by 8% since 2012.
"Compared over the long-term, we also know that we are having less people experiencing literal homelessness than we had a decade or more ago," Mattoon said. "So, we are making progress as a community, and what we're taking away from the Point-in-Time Count are the realities of what COVID did to this community, and the housing crisis, our entire county finds itself in are really some of those challenges that we've been seeing with our service providers."
Our Path Home said the decrease in people experiencing literal homelessness over the long-term is because of several reasons.
"One is our reliance on evidence-based practices and collaboration between the entire COC," Mattoon said. "So, we are focused on housing folks first, which we know gets people off the street and housed more sustainably than how we previously approached programs before housing-first became the predominant methodology."
They also tout investments by partners, which have helped create housing projects including New Path Community Housing and Valor Pointe.
While groups across the state all conducted their count the same night, Ada County is the only region that has released the Point-in-Time Count numbers so far.
The Idaho Housing and Finance Association is in charge of releasing numbers for the rest of the state, which are expected to be released in June.
According to their statewide report from 2022, the Idaho Housing and Finance Association said the top self-reported causes of homelessness are loss of income or increase in rent burden, which overtook domestic violence as the leading cause of homelessness last year.
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