LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Greater than a 3rd of the chronically homeless inhabitants in Lansing didn’t have entry to a shelter.
That quantity is from a 2023 examine commissioned by town to study extra concerning the ongoing downside. The examine’s outcomes had been the subject of dialogue in a gathering held in Lansing final night time.
The examine discovered that many individuals find yourself homeless due to job loss or sickness.
The homelessness downside would not appear to be going anyplace for town of Lansing, with numbers rising in recent times.
“The fact that homelessness, because I’ve been doing this for 30 years… has not decreased; in fact, it increased,” stated Susan Cancro, Govt Director of Creation Home Ministries.
Cancro’s work at Creation Housing consists of her handing out meals, serving to the homeless discover reasonably priced housing and something in between.
Rising housing prices are one of many principal contributing components inflicting this progress in homelessness.
“The cost of living has gone up, those costs get passed along in many ways. One of the ways they’ve been passed along is in increased housing costs… as someone who’s out there trying to live and pay rent, I think you’re feeling it,” stated Cancro.
Cancro says the largest downside is that there is not almost sufficient reasonably priced housing to go round, and town’s report backs that up.
“There’s not enough affordable housing, there’s housing, but sometimes affordable housing isn’t affordable… according to HUD we’re about 8 thousand units shy of affordable housing,” stated Kimberly Coleman of Neighborhood Providers for the Metropolis of Lansing.
Presently, Part 8 housing vouchers have been discontinued, leaving many with out assist to pay lease.
The examine says that solely 23% of individuals escaping homelessness did so with out help.
Public Coverage Associates stories that housing and different points left 2,371 unhoused in Lansing in 2023.
Cancro says there are much more individuals who go undetected, “Often people with children do not want to be detected because they’re worried they’re going to lose their kids… so then they have a really tough time getting into the system.”
Coleman needs to remind everybody that it is vital to see the individuals coping with homelessness as individuals, “They are our neighbors, and they too are entitled to a way of living that does not expose them to the element.”
Coleman says the following step is to arrange individuals, engaged on the low-hanging fruit first, as they start to deal with the problem of homelessness in Lansing.
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