Just got an email from Brian Davis of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, asking for a link to the Coalition's new blog. (Well, not so new... seems like it's been up since early November.) I can't think of a better thing to post on Christmas Eve.
Be sure to click through to NEOCH's main site -- there's a whole lot of mandatory reading, including this fact sheet on homelessness in Cuyahoga County. An excerpt:
Based on a “point in time” count of homeless persons in January, 2005, 2,198 homeless persons were identified. Of these, 1,208 were in emergency shelters, 738 were in transitional housing, and 252 were unsheltered and living on the street.The Grapevine is, of course, the paper that homeless folks have been selling on Cleveland streets for the past dozen years. The archives are here.
NEOCH also believes that there are another 2,000 people “uncounted” on the streets in abandoned buildings and in remote locations outside of the downtown area every night.
Of the 2,198 homeless persons identified in the January, 2005 count, 147 were families with children. We have no idea how many people sleep in an overcrowded apartment or are “doubled up.”
In a background study prepared for Housing First, the Levin College at Cleveland State University estimated that the homeless population of Cuyahoga County most likely ranged between 12,546 and 18,122 persons per year. This includes persons who were episodically homeless and those who are homeless but unknown to the system of care.