HARTFORD, Conn. – A federal report released this week says homelessness increased more than 17 percent in Connecticut this year, but housing advocates say the raw numbers don't tell the whole story.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development report counted almost 4,000 people as being homeless in the state in the 2018 "Point-In-Time" count. But that figure includes almost 600 people evacuated from Puerto Rico to Connecticut by the Federal Emergency Management Agency following Hurricane Maria.

According to Richard Cho, CEO of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, the number of state residents who are homeless remained about the same as last year.

"While that's not necessarily cause for celebration, the numbers that HUD reported did not break down the families who are being sheltered through this special circumstance from those that would be experiencing homelessness otherwise," says Cho.

He says overall, there has been a 25 percent decrease in homelessness in Connecticut since 2007.

Cho points out that 280 homeless Connecticut families have been housed this month alone, due in part to improvements in the response to homelessness that have evolved in the last several years.

"We've developed a system that is able to identify people who are experiencing homelessness," says Cho. “We put them on a list, and we ensure that there's an accountable plan to help those individuals and families reconnect to housing."

He adds that Connecticut was the first state in the nation to effectively end chronic homelessness among veterans.

But Cho believes that homelessness persists mostly because wages are not keeping up with the rising cost of housing.

"While we can work better to make sure that we can help individual families leave homelessness once they enter it, the challenge is how do we stop that inflow into homelessness in the first place? And to me, we can only do that once we solve this affordable housing crisis," says Cho.

More information about Connecticut's efforts to end homelessness is available online at 'CTcandata.org.'


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Rent for New Mexicans has increased 70% since 2017, while wages have only grown by 15%, which is one factor pushing more people into homelessness.

The state's Legislative Finance Committee reviewed a report this week, which showed nearly half of renters are cost-burdened and pay more than a third of their income on housing.

Kathleen Gygi, program evaluator for the Legislative Finance Committee, said new data showed the state's emergency shelter capacity has more than doubled in the past seven years, while the supply of affordable rental units has declined by 50% since 2020.

"Homelessness increased by about 48% last year over the year before," Gygi reported. "In addition, rising housing prices and lack of supply of housing units has increased the number of low-income New Mexicans who cannot afford their rent."

There are almost 4,000 homeless people in New Mexico after nearly a decade of declines. Gygi acknowledged while emergency shelter capacity has increased, especially in Albuquerque -- the state's largest city -- moving people into permanent housing has proved to be more difficult. She noted cost-burdened low-income residents face a high risk of losing shelter.

According to the report, January's "Point-in-Time" count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness showed there were plenty of beds available at many shelters across the state, but only about 50% were utilized.

Amy Whitfield, housing and homelessness adviser to the governor's office, said more work needs to be done to find solutions.

"We don't know the numbers that tell us exactly what to build, where to build it and how to build it," Whitfield pointed out. "We've got a lot of different ideas that say we need more permanent supportive housing, we need more multifamily housing. We don't really know for sure how much of that we need and which communities we need it in."

Last year the New Mexico Coalition To End Homelessness estimated about a quarter of those experiencing homelessness were coming from outside of state.

AARP Iowa is working to raise awareness of loans and grants the U.S. Department of Agriculture is making available to very low-income seniors for home repairs and improvements, known as the 504 Home Repair Program.

Theresa Greenfield, Iowa rural development director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the program is available to people in communities of 20,000 or fewer to help them stay in their homes. She pointed out the money can be used for a wide variety of improvements.

"Roofs. Windows. Electrical issues. Plumbing," Greenfield outlined. "Seniors who -- maybe their life has changed -- they need a hip replacement. They're going to be using a walker more often, and they want to make upgrades to their bathroom for example to become more handicapped accessible."

Since people have to meet certain criteria to qualify, Greenfield recommended working directly with the USDA to determine eligibility, and also to attend a webinar on May 24.

The program operates on making very low-interest loans or grants available to Iowans who qualify.

Greenfield noted since many people do not know about the program, a lot of money stands to go unused.

"We do about $47 million worth of grants and about $28 million worth of loans, and we have plenty of resources here in Iowa to help folks," Greenfield explained. "Again, it's the goal to keep folks in their homes."

While the grants are available for Iowans 62 and older, there is no age restriction on the loans.

An eviction prevention program is working to ensure evictions do not happen in the first place.

The United Way of King County has provided $500,000 of flexible funding as aid for more than 1,000 affordable housing units across the county. It is a partnership with the affordable housing developer HNN Communities.

Marlo Klein, senior community impact manager for homelessness prevention for United Way of King County, said the goal of the pilot program is to ensure someone already in affordable housing does not lose it.

"We already have a homeless crisis going on and it's so important to keep people in their housing whenever possible; prevent the trauma of homelessness," Klein explained. "There's not enough space or resources for housing for folks to find that they can afford."

Klein pointed out the program provides funding for anything putting someone at risk of eviction, comparing it to a savings account.

For instance, she recalled a woman in one of the HNN units was having car trouble, preventing her from getting to work and child care. Funds from the eviction prevention program were able to help.

"Our money's being put to use in a lot of creative ways for household's unexpected needs that jeopardizes their ability to pay their rent on time, and we can fill that gap," Klein emphasized.

Klein noted the inspiration for the program came while she was managing a different eviction prevention program at the King County courthouse before the pandemic. She noticed a lot of people being evicted were coming from affordable housing programs and wondered what could be done to help.

"As a result of what we learned before the pandemic started at the courthouse, we decided to kind of move our work a little bit more upstream to help people avoid even getting an eviction in the first place," Klein concluded.