Montgomery County, named Texas' sixth fastest-growing county by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010, has seen a significant surge in population and new development in recent years. As middle-class residents and large-scale builders continue to flock to the area, the county is also seeing an influx of low-income individuals and families struggling to find work, unable to pay their bills and becoming homeless, according to local officials.
The most recent point-in-time tallies by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Texas Homeless Network indicate homelessness in Montgomery County grew by 30 percent from January 2013 to January 2014, increasing from 470 people to 611 people. During the same time period, THN estimates a 38 percent growth of homelessness in the county—an increase from 713 people to 985 people—when factoring in those who may have been overlooked in the study.
"Homeless people are not going to camp way out in the middle of the national forest—they are going to camp close to where there are dumpsters, support services, people and where they can have lighting and feel a little safer," said Joanne Ducharme, director of Montgomery County Community Development. "You find the camps in our populated areas. We have homeless camps in all towns—Magnolia, Montgomery, Conroe and [in] east county."
In an effort to reduce the number of homeless individuals and families in the area, Montgomery County officials have put forth a five-year plan committed to tackling the issue, Ducharme said.
The plan aims to help reduce the county's homeless population by pooling resources among local nonprofit agencies to better address the needs of homeless clients and constructing new centers designed to help individuals and families lead more hospitable lives.
Defining 'homeless'
Nancy Heintz, president of the Montgomery County Homeless Coalition, said the organization defines homelessness as individuals or families who do not have stable, adequate housing on a regular basis and are unable to sustain their living environment. As identified by HUD, homelessness is described in similar terms but also accounts for individuals living in shelters and transitional housing as well as unstable areas not designed for sleeping accommodations, such as a car, park or bridge, she said.
From October 2013 through September 2014, Mildred Ashworth, executive director of Society of Samaritans in Magnolia, said the organization saw a 50 percent increase since the previous year in the number of residents receiving services. These residents indicated they have moved in with other family members due to losing a job and other financial reasons, Ashworth said.
"They don't consider themselves homeless, but they really are because they are living with family and friends," she said. "We [give] food once a month as long as they qualify, then they can come for help with rent, mortgage, utilities and prescriptions once a year if they qualify, and most of them do."
LaToya Carter, assistant director at Family Promise of Montgomery County, said often there are common misconceptions pertaining to the homeless population in the area.
"When you mention homeless, most people visualize individuals that are destitute living on the street," Carter said. "These are just regular citizens that were working at some point in time—neighbors that live next to you and had a bad financial situation occur in their lives that caused them to be in that situation."
At any given time, Family Promise serves a maximum of 16 individuals, or up to four families experiencing homelessness, and offers shelter, meals and transportation for up to 90 days, Carter said.
Carter said a majority of homeless clients in need of services through Family Promise have lost their job or lack a second income due to a separation in the family. The average age of those who identify as homeless has decreased compared to last year's numbers by nine years to 28 years old, signaling a surge in the amount of homeless children and young adults, according to the point-in-time report.
In addition to the 30 percent increase in the county's homeless population this year, Heintz said she estimates there are an additional 600 homeless students in the county's school districts, including Magnolia ISD, not factored into the point-in-time report. District counselors tally enrollment numbers separately at the beginning of the school year in August rather than January when the official survey results are tallied, she said.
"Unofficially [the students] are homeless, but homeless means they could be sleeping on someone's couch, but we know that's not stable for a student who is trying to excel at their studies," Heintz said. "We try to tell the story that those people that HUD doesn't recognize in an official way—they are an important part of our story in Montgomery County when we're talking about homelessness."
Five-year county plan
Since 1998, Montgomery County Community Development has been tasked with developing five-year plans for the county to target growth and improvements in particular areas of importance determined by community input. For the new five-year plan spanning until 2020, the county is focused on battling homelessness, Ducharme said.
Three large projects are in the works for the five-year plan—the construction of one large or two smaller shelters in possibly the eastern and western parts of the county, adding an empowerment center to house resources for the homeless population and building a residential treatment facility for substance use, Ducharme said.
"We all know there is no residential treatment facility in Montgomery County," Ducharme said. "Whenever we run into people with chronic problems, we have to send them to Houston, and it disrupts families, jobs and sets treatment up for failure."
After securing a $785,000 grant from Montgomery County Community Development this year, the homeless coalition plans to transform the site of the former Montgomery County Food Bank building in downtown Conroe near the Salvation Army into an empowerment center in late fall 2015, Heintz said.
Plans for the center include a full slate of educational programming on a variety of topics, such as finance, basic literacy training and a teaching kitchen to potentially offer culinary certificates in conjunction with Lone Star College. A community garden and healthy cooking classes supported by AgriLife Extension are in the works as well as support from local art therapy leagues, Heintz said.
The center could also house a laundry facility and showers to allow homeless individuals and families a place to perform basic hygiene rather than increasing strain on public bathrooms in the county's libraries, Ducharme said.
Jobs and housing
Individuals participating in the point-in-time survey reported their primary factors for homelessness as unemployment and the inability to pay rent or a mortgage. For the past four years, basic food and clothing, transportation assistance, food stamps and job training and placement have ranked as the top four services needed most in the homeless community.
"I see the baseline issue as being jobs, not only connecting people with jobs but finding employers who are willing to take a chance on someone who has this label of homelessness on them," Ducharme said.
There is a significant void of low-income housing in the county and a lack of transitional housing available to the general population, though a few organizations provide units for specialized groups, said Diane Pyles, executive director of Montgomery County Housing Authority.
The authority administers housing vouchers to assist 367 low-income families at any given time with renting a house, apartment or mobile home. The organization maintains a waiting list of about 150 families based on a lottery system, she said.
"Years ago, we could get 500 or 800 applications in one day, and it was a nightmare to take those applications," Pyles said. "If we did that now with the need we have, we would have 2,000 to 3,000 people on our list, and we would be 10 years down the road before we could consider it."
Another issue facing the county's homeless population is securing transportation to and from a place of work, said Capt. Adrian Twinney of the Salvation Army Conroe Corps. The Salvation Army is the only shelter in the county to offer overnight lodging for homeless men and women, according to the organization's website.
"A lot of [my clients] would work if given the opportunity to get to a place of employment, and that would be one of the first steps to finding a home," Twinney said. "There's a lot of housing being built in the region not too far from where I live, but there's nothing at the lower end of the market."
Long-term solutions
Though the county's five-year plan pledges to battle homelessness, local leaders agree that the collaboration of resources and aid is the best route to assisting individuals out of homelessness.
Long-term solutions for reducing homelessness in the county include improving job training and educational opportunities and encouraging private developers to apply for state tax credits for building new low-income housing, officials said.
With many existing facilities based in Conroe and Houston, Ashworth said Magnolia is in desperate need of a facility to offer shelter for local homeless individuals and families, as well as a trade center to promote educational opportunities and specialized jobs.
"[The local organizations] want to get better to make all of our funds go further, so we're doing the best we can do for the people that we're helping," Heintz said. "That's really the bottom line—are we helping [the homeless] in the most effective, efficient way that gives them more of a long-term plan and moves them further [rather] than doing it piecemeal."
