The number of homeless people in Montgomery County decreased by 11 percent over the past year, according to a January point-in-time count conducted for a regional report released last week.
The annual count, conducted Jan. 28, found 981 homeless people living on county streets. The January 2015 count found 1,100 homeless people in the county.
The report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) noted the survey was conducted one day later than planned because of the Jan. 22-23 blizzard, but that the number of people in emergency homeless shelters was about 11 percent higher in the county during the 2015 count.
The report pointed to a 31 percent decrease in the number of homeless families with children as the primary driver of the overall decrease. There were 109 homeless families with children counted during the 2016 survey and 159 counted during the 2015 survey.
An increase in housing units available for families on the brink of homelessness and the opening of an online waiting list from the county’s Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) helped lower the 2015 numbers, according to the report. The report said the HOC list better enabled families in permanent supportive housing to find mainstream housing, moving them further from homelessness.
The January count also found 230 children in families among the homeless, a 28 percent decrease from 318 in 2015. The count did find a 4 percent increase, from 598 to 623, in the number of homeless individuals without children.
The surveys were conducted by local nonprofits and volunteers. According to the report, 375 of the homeless people without children answered questions about how they became homeless, with 291 indicating they had lost housing in Montgomery County and the rest indicating they had lost housing in other places.
While the county achieved “functional zero” in 2015 in terms of the number of homeless veterans, the report said “it was expected that additional veterans would become newly homeless over time.” The January count found 17 homeless people who self-identified as veterans, though veteran status could be verified for only six of those 17.
The report also delved into the county’s stock of affordable housing and permanent supportive housing for those who may have been recently homeless.
“In Montgomery County there has been little change in the availability of affordable housing for persons with low to extremely-low incomes,” the report said, pointing to a study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition that found a family living in the county must earn at least $58,344 annually to afford an average two-bedroom apartment rent of $1,458 a month.
The report did say county and federal funding has helped increase the number of permanent supportive housing units. The number of people living in permanent supportive housing in the county increased to 2,071 in 2016 from 1,960 in 2015.
“This increase reflects the continued commitment of Montgomery County to increasing the supply of permanent housing,” the report said.
