The State of Indiana has released the official numbers from the Point In Time (PIT) homeless count from January.
This count is mandated by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. These numbers are compiled from the various regions with agencies tasked with completing the census of individuals experiencing category one homelessness.
Zach Heronemous is Executive Director of Aurora, which fights homelessness in the region.
“So when you're looking at the point in time data, we're specifically targeting category one homeless, that means those folks that are either in shelter on the street or in places not meant for habitation,” he said.
Aurora Evansville spearheaded the count, and released early numbers in March. It revealed an uptick of category one homelessness in 2023. Aurora counted 522 in January. The state counted 525. The official count in 2022, was 355.
Heronemus said the improved pandemic-era counts, including last year, were outliers because of government funding to prevent homelessness, which is now gone.
“When you take out those two outlying years, we're actually trending in the same upward direction of what national data is showing,” he said. “So there's been about a six to 10-percent increase, year to year, depending on which part of the nation you're looking at the data.”
Vanderburgh County, and the surrounding nine counties are in region 12 of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority map.
In January, Aurora Evansville and partners completed the count at overnight shelters. They also sought unsheltered individuals in public.
Heronemus said access to affordable housing is “greatly diminished” since the pandemic.
“… greatly diminished in a multitude of ways, one, not nearly enough properties that could pass an inspection," he said. "Two, landlords and property management companies that have increased the income qualifying guidelines to reduce their, I guess liability on who they choose to allow to rent to.”
Heronemus said they will continue to focus on their “housing first” model of aiding those experiencing homelessness, and linking them with other related services they need, called "wraparound services."
He said with recent staffing changes, his organization is postponing their voluntary mid-summer count, for August.
More on the state data
The Region 12 PIT Homeless Count noted the individual’s age, race, ethnicity, veteran stats, mental health and gender. There were separate tables for households with children and adult-absent households with children. As discussed, numbers increased consistently in all categories over 2022 numbers.
Of the 10 counties included in Region 12, Vanderburgh County had the most homeless with 509 of the 525. Knox and Gibson Counties recorded seven individuals; Perry included two. Daviess, Dubois, Posey and Spencer recorded 0.
The largest single category was adults aged 45 to 54, and 203 individuals experiencing homelessness also acknowledged “serious mental illness.”
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