Columbus better than most cities on homelessness, but problem persists

A new national study shows that while the reasons for homelessness and the percentage of unhoused people vary by region, the rising cost of housing plays a role in driving homelessness across the county.

The report by Brookings Metro on the perception and reality of homelessness across the country looks at 48 cities, including Columbus, and gives suggestions on how to best deal with the challenges.

There's no one-size-fits-all, the report said. But things that can help include a continuous federal funding stream for emergency rental assistance and zoning code changes to boost affordable housing construction, said Tracy Hadden Loh, a researcher for Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Metro and one of the report's authors.

Loh said a constant stream of rental assistance is necessary "if we don't want people sleeping on the street."

Columbus better than most

According to the report, Columbus is faring better than most of the 48 cities.

The percentage of homeless people in Columbus who have no shelter, meaning they are not in temporary shelter or transitional housing, is 18%, which is lower than 32 of the 48 cities.

Cities with the highest percentages of people with no shelter were generally on the West Coast. Seattle; San Francisco; Long Beach, California.; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Oakland, California; Sacramento, California; San Jose, California; and Fresno, California; all have unsheltered homelessness rates of more than 50%, led by San Jose at 77%.

Columbus was tied with San Antonio and Chicago at 35th in the number of homeless residents per 100,000 at 145.

In Columbus, the latest point-in-time count, on Jan. 25, 2023, found 2,337 unhoused people.

Seven of the 10 cities with the highest total homeless rates per capita of the 48 were on the West Coast, led by San Francisco at 959 per 100,000.

Loh said the 48 cities on the list are defined as large cities by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and are different from the largest metro areas. Cleveland and Cincinnati are not on the list. Researchers relied on 2022 point-in-time counts of homeless people and 2022 American Community Survey population estimates.

Homelessness dropped during pandemic

The report concentrates on New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle. While many perceive that homelessness worsened during the pandemic, that wasn't the case in three of those cities except Seattle.

In New York, total homelessness per 100,000 residents dropped 16% from 2015 to 2022. In Philadelphia, it dropped 25%. In Chicago, 42%.

"The thing that surprised me the most was just to see in the data how much homelessness went down during the pandemic," Loh said.

Yet research done for a 2022 report on downtowns across the country found consistent perceptions from those four cities that homelessness was a growing problem when, in three of the four, it wasn't.

"Interviewees told us that increased fear of public disorder, crime, and homelessness in the wake of the pandemic was the primary barrier preventing them from returning downtown — not changing office or residential patterns," the report said.

Loh said she thinks that misperception was caused in part by declining foot traffic during the pandemic, which led to unsheltered homeless people becoming more visible.

The report found that the nation was able to hold off a spike in homelessness during the pandemic because of federal relief that was authorized in 2020 and 2021. That included eviction moratoriums along with emergency rental assistance, increased unemployment benefits, and the expanded child tax credit.

Sergio Miranda was sitting inside the Columbus Metropolitan Library Downtown on Thursday and Friday. Miranda, wearing a gray beard and dark stocking cap, said he had only been in Columbus a week. He came here from Kansas City, Missouri. He said he had no money.

"I'm looking for a job," said Miranda, 68. Asked if he could afford housing if he found work, he just shrugged his shoulders.

More housing needed

The homelessness study found that, more than any other factor, "regional housing market dynamics — particularly when rents rise by amounts that low-income residents cannot afford — drive geographic variations in the prevalence of homelessness across U.S. regions and correlate with higher homelessness rates."

In the Columbus area, it's getting harder for some to afford rental housing.

According to a June report by the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio (COHHIO) and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, full-time workers in the Columbus area, which includes Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Pickaway, Madison and Morrow counties, must earn $22.37 an hour to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment, out of range for many.

Amy Riegel, COHHIO's executive director, said her organization is seeing chronic homelessness increasing in smaller cities, including Dayton and Canton. In Dayton, part of the reason is the 2019 tornadoes that tore through that city.

"The tornadoes eliminated a significant amount of housing," Riegel said.

On Dec. 18, COHHIO released a report that said Ohio's unhoused population rose 7% from January 2022 to January 2023, with a point-in-time count of at least 11,386. Spiking rents had much to do with that, the report said. The organization wants Congress to increase funding for HUD's housing and homelessness programs and assist tenants in preventing evictions.

Ben Sears, community engagement coordinator for the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless, said Columbus and Franklin County did better than other communities in providing emergency rental assistance during the pandemic.

But homelessness will ease only when employers pay more and builders construct more affordable housing, he said.

"Stable employment that pays a wage that people could live off of in housing that's unsubsidized. That goes back to the statement that housing affordability is a leading cause of homelessness in Columbus," Sears said.

"Emergency rental assistance meets a crisis, but too often individuals need more support," he said.

Remembering the homeless

Sears' group held its annual service at Trinity Episcopal Church on Dec. 21 to remember the 94 in the homeless community who died during the past year.

Don Strasser, the coalition's immediate past chair, said people like to talk about building more affordable housing in Columbus.

"But it's not for our people, and nobody talks about it," he said.

Shannon Isom, president and CEO of the Community Shelter Board in Columbus, said higher housing costs are pushing some into homelessness here. As Greater Columbus' boom continues, so does the pressure on housing prices and rents.

"Housing is being commodified," Isom said. And that means there's not enough housing for poorer residents or those experiencing homelessness.

Sears said that the annual point-in-time counts miss many people.

"So many people seek unsafe shelter," he said. "There's always an undercount."

The report said arresting people for behaviors associated with homelessness, such as sleeping on sidewalks, makes it more difficult to solve the problem, since it gives people criminal records making it more difficult to get a job or an apartment.

"Jails aren’t homeless shelters," Loh said.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New report suggests solutions for Columbus homeless problem