As rents soar and COVID persists, more older people experience homelessness in Palm Beach County

BOYNTON BEACH — The corner of Congress Avenue and Boynton Beach Boulevard is home to two gas stations, a bank, multiple restaurants, a couple storefronts, and – though less visibly – a young man from Alabama.

The 28-year-old lives out of a bag of belongings accumulated over three years at the intersection, and at various others. And he’s one of the estimated 1,400 individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Palm Beach County.

“I said, ‘Tell me, how did you get here?’ And he said, ‘The voices in my ear were so loud that I had to use heroin to quiet the voices,’ ” said Diana Stanley, chief executive of The Lord’s Place, a Palm Beach County nonprofit offering counseling, job training and shelter to those experiencing homelessness.

Stanley spoke to the man, on Feb. 25 during this year’s Homeless Point-in-Time Count, an annual survey of those experiencing homelessness in Palm Beach County.

The 24-hour intake began at noon on  Feb. 24 and revealed that the number of people experiencing homelessness in the county has fallen by about 7% since the last count in 2020. There was no count in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

'At that juncture, they’re really in pain, and they’re really hurting'

Palm Beach County’s Community Services Department and its Homeless and Housing Alliance led the count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that it be completed to qualify the county for federal funding used to reduce homelessness.

Wendy Tippett, who oversees human services and community programs for the county agency, said the count provides an estimate of how many people are experiencing homelessness, though accounting for all individuals is impossible.

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Field outreach teams surveyed wooded areas, bus stops, food pantries, libraries, and soup kitchens across the county, escorted by local law enforcement officials. Teams consisted of over 200 volunteers from the county’s “Continuum of Care,” or the nonprofit employees, county staff and area residents working to prevent local homelessness.

“There’s something really magical about going out at 4 when it’s still dark,” Stanley, who participated in an early-morning shift, said. “You really see (people) at one of the rawest moments, and then to be able to sit down and talk to them – because at that juncture, they’re really in pain, and they’re really hurting.”

The point-in-time count allows the county to direct resources towards groups that experience the highest rates of homelessness.

Youth ages 18-24, seniors ages 62 and over, veterans, single women, people with mental illnesses and disabilities and those recently released from prison are all disproportionately at risk.

Volunteers also tracked the number of families and individuals in shelters and on the streets and the duration of their experience with homelessness.

COVID, soaring rents leave fingerprints on groups where homelessness rose

While overall homelessness decreased, the numbers of certain subgroups increased. The number of older individuals experiencing homelessness is an estimated 14% higher than in 2020. The number of homeless veterans and youths also rose marginally.

Stanley attributes this to a combination of what she calls “the pandemic shadow” – a national surge in mental-health issues and substance abuse – and rising rents in Palm Beach County. Rental increases far surpassed their usual rate of 3% to 5% in 2021, soaring up to 37% across the county.

At St. Ann Place, a daytime outreach center providing services to the homeless at North Dixie Highway and 20th Street in West Palm Beach, executive director John Pescosolido said he often encounters older individuals experiencing homelessness. Many struggle to manage rising rent and health care costs, like one 72-year-old man paying for cancer treatments and a rising $1,200 rent with an $1,800 monthly income.

“He’s just going to squeak by, barely, but he can’t handle his cancer costs,” Pescosolido said. “How do we work with him to keep him in housing? Because he’s not going to find a (lower) rent. It’s an ongoing problem.”

To offset the impact of escalating rents, the county poured $110 million into homelessness prevention services over the last two years. It expanded access to temporary shelters, in the hopes of ensuring that within all at-risk groups, the number of unsheltered individuals declined.

In June 2020, the county opened the Lewis Center Annex, a converted former correctional facility now serving as a 125-bed temporary shelter at the South Florida Fairgrounds. The Annex helped the county provide temporary housing for an encampment of unsheltered individuals living in John Prince Park near Lake Worth Beach.

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According to Stanley, the lack of housing is especially pronounced in western Palm Beach County.

In December 2021, the county opened a 42-bed shelter in Pahokee to increase access to beds and isolate homeless individuals who contract COVID-19. The facility also expanded access to two-year transitional housing, meant for those who have been homeless who need assistance living on their own, such as youths or people recently released from jail.

In the same month, a six-bed assessment center opened in Belle Glade, where police can bring unsheltered individuals and families to receive assistance.

“We really want to ensure that homelessness is nonrecurring – it’s rare, doesn’t continue to happen, and it’s brief, as brief as possible,” Tippett said. “We did all that we possibly could to try to keep people safe, and I think that reflected in the PIT count because there were so many sheltered versus unsheltered.”

The county’s “coordinated entry system,” used to identify and assist those experiencing homelessness, also received increased funding. Officials now have the resources to dispatch teams to help when they are notified of the people-in-need's location anywhere in the county.

Agreements with landlords seen as critical to providing shelter

Now, the county’s Continuum of Care is focused on confronting the affordable housing shortage.

It recently partnered with the county Housing Authority and West Palm Beach, Delray, and Pahokee housing authorities to provide more Section 8 vouchers to those experiencing homelessness. They also introduced a rapid rehousing program in whcih the city pays for the first three months of a homeless individual’s rent in full, gradually decreasing subsequent funding.

Moving forward, Tippett said the county is focused on recruiting landlords. Its Smart Landlord Campaign entices landlords to partner with the county, providing them with rent security deposits, damage deposits and other incentives.

Other community organizations, like Palm Beach County’s Department of Veteran Affairs, are also working to engage landlords. Cindy Treichel works for the VA, enrolling veterans in the HUD Veteran Assisted Supporting Housing Program. It partially covers the cost of veterans’ rent and connects them with social workers for support.

Treichel said the VA is able to guarantee damage deposits and rent stability for landlords who engage with the program.

“Our concern is, we don’t want to see the 500 people that we just got housed lose their housing, which is what we’re seeing in our community (due to rent increases),” Treichel said.

Health care for homeless, especially for women, another county priority

According to Treichel, Palm Beach County also lacks health care services for homeless individuals, especially women. To address this, the county’s Health Care District opened a clinic at St. Ann Place, where it provides on-site primary care to homeless individuals.

A registered nurse, a mental health provider, and a physician staff the clinic and commonly encounter epileptic or dehydrated patients. Rather than visit a pharmacy, the patients – who often have no means of transportation – can pick up medications at the clinic.

“Having a regular female nurse on site that someone can come in and talk to every day has been so beneficial, especially for the female population, because they feel comfortable sharing things with the nurse that they wouldn’t share with myself,” Pescosolido said.

Tippett emphasized that this kind of collaboration between different organizations is essential to reducing homelessness. She hopes to expand the net of providers supplying services to the homeless through partnerships with agencies such as Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and with more faith-based organizations.

“We need to be able to all come together as a community and say, ‘It is not OK, and it never should be OK, that somebody has to sleep in their car or sleep out on the streets,’” Stanley said. “As soon as we are able to do that, I’m hoping we’re going to see the tide change.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Annual homeless count in Palm Beach County finds older people struggling