A homelessness count from January shows that while the number of homeless people in Harris County has dropped since the start of the pandemic, there was an increase from 2021 to 2022. However, officials with the Coalition for the Homeless said the methodology was different in 2021 because of the pandemic, so 2021 data cannot be adequately compared to 2022 data.
The organization reported in a March 16 report that there were more than 3,200 homeless people in the Greater Houston area. The number of homeless persons increased by 5.8% from 2021 to 2022, according to the report. However, the region had about 4,000 people experiencing homelessness at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Locally, nonprofit Cy-Fair Helping Hands offers services and outreach programs to those who are facing or on the brink of homelessness. Janet Ryan became the executive director of the nonprofit in February after several years working with local nonprofit Cypress Assistance Ministries ahead of founder Jean Dreyer's retirement.
“The number of people needing help has grown substantially,” Ryan said. “Through the nonprofits where I worked, we have doubled and tripled the number of people that we served over these years.”
Ryan said the pandemic had a great impact on this increase in those needing help as many people experienced job loss at the start of the pandemic and workers were labeled as essential or unessential.
She said many of these individuals were unable to build up enough savings to keep themselves afloat, leading them to be evicted and out on the streets.
“So it took literally missing one or two paychecks until people were living in very dire circumstances,” Ryan said. “So the lack of a safety net goes back to before COVID[-19].”
In Cy-Fair, the homeless population is largely made up of families, according to Ryan, who said this is a trend across the county. She credits this with the more moderate weather in the area as well as the gentle approach organizations, such as Cy-Fair Helping Hands, has when helping the homeless.
“So you know we’re not super harsh,” Ryan said. “We don’t go clearing out camps all the time, that kind of thing that you see in some parts of the country. Instead, we are more about trying to help people transition out of that situation, so I think that probably draws people to the area.”
Cy-Fair Helping Hands partners with other groups and community entities, such as Cy-Fair ISD. The district aids in the distribution of assistance materials and offers student and family counseling and support to homeless students.
Officials with CFISD reported an increase in the number of students designated as homeless from 1,214 to 1,422 students between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years.
While people often visualize homelessness as people clustered under bridges, Esperancia Moreno, a client of Cy-Fair Helping Hands, said that is not always the case.
She and six others are living in a hotel because the nonprofit provided her with a hotel voucher. However, it can be difficult for individuals experiencing homelessness to find such assistance.
“Especially if you’re not out on the street, if you’re sleeping in your car or you have a hotel room, it’s hard to get assistance,” Moreno said.
She said many organizations overlook those living in hotel rooms or expect those who made it that far to figure out the rest for themselves.
“I want people to know that homelessness is not just necessarily people sleeping under a bridge or in the car, but there’s a form of homeless families that we still wake up every day to continue to work in, send our children to school on a daily basis,” Moreno said. “I want our community to know that there’s so many homeless people within hotels, not just on the streets, not just under bridges.”
Chris Goodwin contributed to this report.
