Wide variation in Chronic Counts at CoCs
UNSHELTERED COUNTS:
The NHIP completed an analysis of the prevalence of chronic homelessness at the Continuum level calculating the rate as a percent of the total unsheltered count for each CoC. PIT data from 390 CoCs found 60,338 unsheltered persons estimated as chronically homeless among the 195,467 total unsheltered persons for an average national rate of 31 percent. A total of 16 CoCs reported an chronic unsheltered prevalence rate of 70% or greater including 4 CoCs (OK-504, VI-500, TN-510, MS-500) reporting 90% or more of their unsheltered population met the current federal chronic definition. Forty-two (42) CoCs reported a rate of 5% or lower including 27 CoCs reporting no chronically homeless among their unsheltered population. It is unclear whether these CoCs reported zero chronically homeless, or if they did not provide estimates.
EMERGENCY SHELTER COUNTS:
An additional comparison of the rate of emergency shelter dwellers identified as chronically homeless showed an average rate of 13% across all CoCs (35,570 out of 275,505). Large variation was also found with estimates between 0% and 100%. Six CoCs (OK-504, AL-502, CA-517, CA-518, FL-517) reported a rate of 50% of greater, while 69 CoCs reported 5% or fewer emergency shelter dwellers met the chronic definition. It is noted that OK-504 Norman (Oklahoma) reported all 227 unsheltered and 76 emergency shelter persons as chronically homeless. New York City reported a prevalence of 7 percent, or 4,838 out of 72,187 persons.
FAMILY VS. INDIVIDUALS SHELTER CHRONIC COUNTS:
Further analysis separating family individuals and single adult individuals living in shelters found a national chronic average of 4% among family individuals and 16% for single individuals. Selected large cities data are listed below:
- New York City (3% families, 12% individuals)
- Seattle (4% families, 29% individuals)
- San Diego (10% families, 27% individuals)
- Portland (10% families, 23% individuals)
- Washington DC (6% families, 41% individuals)
- Chicago (5% families, 16% individuals)
NHIP COMMENT:
The NHIP continues to advocate for an HMIS-based Chronic definition to eliminate the current unsound approach. The tremendous variation in estimates and the lack of any real oversight of the data reported supports the need for a different definition due to the current poor data quality. The current chronic data should not be used in reporting especially at the Continuum level.
An HMIS-based definition would also give providers incentives to expand and improve unsheltered data collection practices which is currently a huge gap in in most communities. Communities need to prioritize more comprehensive unsheltered data collection. Many communities do not take full advantage of the PIT count to locate and enter additional unsheltered persons - doing counts by merely driving by and counting people who look homeless. Foundations working in homelessness like the Melville Foundation, Weinberg Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Weingart Foundation among others should be more pro-active in supporting these efforts.
San Jose: $600,000 per living container??
Last week, the San Jose City Council approved a project for a 61-unit facility to serve homeless individuals using retrofitted storage containers at a cost $36 million or $600,000 per unit. The project cost includes all site development and ancillary trailer space for staffing. The site is located adjacent to a 50 unit low-cost apartment rental complex, Despite the cost of the facility and neighborhood complaints, the council approved the project and development will now attempt to secure financing.
Building new "affordable housing" is never an ideal situation since new construction is always very expensive. While most projects have costs between $150K to $250K per unit (2 bedroom unit - 600 sq ft), the cost of land and labor in the Bay Area makes building affordable housing not a very good option. San Jose is the 9th largest city in the country and does contain a large and growing inventory of rental housing. It is also one of the most expensive with two-bedroom units generally running between $2200 and $3200, although some can be found cheaper.
At a price range of $36 million, it does appear unwise to build housing - especially container housing. These kinds of money can be more efficiently and quickly used at subsidizing private rentals - a method that could yield 3 to 4 times the amount of housing in a much quicker time period. While the market is costly, there are units available.
DISCLOSURE: The Editor of the NHIP Michael Ullman currently lives in San Jose and pays $2,700 for an upscale 2bd-2bath apartment.
HIC needs History of Homeless Programs
Current information on shelter facilities is very minimal. It is extremely important to document key characteristics of shelter for better understanding what is being delivered. There is currently a wide range of facilities that fall under the "emergency" definition. This information is also important to document the history of service provision. The NHIP will be sending a request to HUD to add additional information to the HIC listing:
Characteristics:
1) 24 hour vs. Night Only
2) Number of meals provided daily
3) Full Case Management vs. Partial Coverage vs. None
4) Cooking facilities available
5) Year program started
6) Beds, Cots, Mats
7) Raised vs. non-raised off floor
8) Number of people per room - 1, 2-4, 4-8, 9-16,16-25,26-50, 51 to 100, 101+
9) Ownership of people (Non-profit, private owner, government owned)
10) Type of facility (Hotel/Motel, Church building, Civic building, built for shelter permanent, built for shelter sprung structure)
If anyone has suggestions about this listing, feel free to email the NHIP at NHIPData@gmail.org
Thank You
The NHIP
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