Hamilton County is seeing an uptick in the number of people experiencing homelessness. The increase follows several years of decline, and is in line with a national trend.
Strategies to End Homelessness CEO Kevin Finn points to rising housing costs as a primary factor.
"The increased cost of housing has been a nationwide issue, but, as has been documented by Redfin and other organizations, the increased cost of housing — it's gone up more quickly in Cincinnati [and] Hamilton County than the national average — that is the biggest reason why we're seeing more homelessness," says Finn.
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He also notes when there is such large demand for limited housing, property owners can be more selective, "and people who are chronically homeless, people who are coming off the street, people that are exiting the homeless services system, just look less desirable to property owners, and therefore they are the hardest people to find housing for, especially the sort of chronically homeless group that is on the street."
Another contributing factor is the end of COVID-era federal funding for eviction prevention programs and emergency rental assistance. He says there's a fraction of the amount of emergency rental assistance to help people with eviction notices now compared to a couple years ago when American Rescue Plan funds were flowing through Hamilton County's Board of Commissioners into local programs.
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Hamilton County is also feeling the effects of a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that says cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places. Finn says Cincinnati police and the Hamilton County's Sheriff's deputies haven't changed their tactics since the ruling, but neighboring communities have.
"We have seen an uptick in people who are coming to sleep in encampments in Hamilton County simply to avoid being ticketed or fined somewhere outside the county," he explains, adding sometimes people are even being arrested. "A lot of times, these people come in, they sleep in a camp in Hamilton County, and they wake up in the morning and they go back to wherever."
Finn says Strategies to End Homelessness continues to work with the city of Cincinnati and Butler County-based Warrior Homesteads on creating a village of "tiny homes" to help get people into housing.
"We need a site," Finn told county commissioners on Tuesday when asked why the project is moving so slowly. "You try to build a housing development to serve people who are homeless, and you're going to spend at least five years in court."
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Finn says there's a lot of resistance from communities who worry property values may decrease if housing for the homeless population goes up in their neighborhood. He says an ideal site would be one that is already owned by a government entity.
"I think the way we could hit the fast-forward button on a tiny homes community would be to have either the city or the county help us identify the site, and then we could move on from there. Hopefully that would limit the amount of legal entanglements."
Finn says tiny homes would be ideal because they don't require people to go into a big shelter with a bunch of strangers, which can be a big deterrent for many people. Plus, people have their own space in a community setting.
"You're giving them a space of their own that, in some ways, is reminiscent of the camp they might be sleeping in, but much nicer amenities. That, for a lot of people who are unsheltered, is their first step out of homelessness — maybe after a year or two in a tiny home, they're ready to move on to a more traditional housing option."
