Survey: Area homeless population growing

By Seth Rosen

Published: April 8, 2008

The Charlottesville area’s homeless population increased this past year and fewer people living in shelters and on the streets are employed, according to a new survey.
The Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless’ annual “point-in-time” study found that 292 people in the area were homeless, up from 266 at the time of last year’s survey. The census was distributed to shelters and service agencies in the planning district — Charlottesville and Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties — from Jan. 29-31, and survey teams visited soup kitchens and outdoor spots where the homeless are likely to spend the night.
Though no snapshot survey can accurately gauge the total number of homeless people in a community, activists said that the study highlights a disappointing trend that has been playing out nightly in area shelters. A similar report by area school systems, using different methodology, found that the number of homeless children spiked from 303 in 2007 to 354, according to Jeff Cornelius, the secretary of the Coalition for the Homeless.
“The problem has just grown,” Cornelius said. “I just hope we are going to get better at fixing it in a year.”
The number of homeless people living in shelters climbed from 238 to 277, the survey concluded — and local shelter providers corroborated the study’s finding with anecdotal evidence. Mayor Dave Norris, who heads the interfaith PACEM group, says that his organization’s shelter population has remained mostly static even though a new shelter opened this fall off Grady Avenue, regularly housing 30 to 40 people a night.
David Gilbert, who runs the Salvation Army’s emergency shelter, said his shelter reaches it capacity of 58 almost every evening.
“I have to turn people away every day,” he said. “I may have one spare bed for a single man or woman, but I don’t have room for a mother of three or four children.”
Local activists say that the scarcity of available housing for low-income residents is one of the main factors leading to a rise in the population sleeping on the streets and utilizing shelters. About half of those surveyed said they were homeless because of eviction or rent increases, compared with 28 percent who cited unemployment and 13 percent who stated domestic violence as the reason.
“This indicates we have a growing challenge on our hands and have too many working people who can’t afford housing,” Norris said.
The study shows that fewer homeless individuals are holding down a steady job. Last year 39 percent of those surveyed said they were employed, but the number dipped to 24 percent this year.
The likely culprit is the slowdown in the housing market, activists say, as some of the homeless are people who have lost jobs in the construction industry in recent months.
“Whenever the economy has problems, the people at the margins have it the worst,” Cornelius said.
Sixty-three percent of the homeless are from the region and another 23 percent were from elsewhere in Virginia.
The percentage of the homeless population born in the area is actually higher than the percentage of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents born here, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
“The homeless population in Charlottesville is more native than the population as a whole,” Norris said.