The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently released the 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.
The report provides nationwide estimates of people experiencing homelessness.
The report found that the number of people experiencing homelessness in Indiana was up about 4 percent in the last year.
Reverend Forrest Gilmore is the Executive Director at the Shalom Center. He says the state increase for 2019 was reflected in Bloomington, the city with the highest poverty rate in the state.
“After about four years of relative stability in the number of people experiencing homelessness, we saw a pretty significant jump in the number,” Gilmore says.
He says housing affordability is an issue that plagues the city.
“We’ve got these kind of significant issues that are particularly hitting people in the lowest levels of income.”
Other factors he listed included declining wages, and decreases in federal funding for housing first programs.
