Survey shows Denver metro-area homelessness increased by nearly 13% since 2020
DENVER — Nearly 800 more people in the Denver-metro area were experiencing homelessness on a single night than that same night two years ago. The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI) has recently released its full data of its annual Point-in-Time count.
The organization creates an annual effort in January to count the number of those experiencing homelessness to understand the scope and demographics of the homeless population. This year’s count took place on Jan. 24 and included people in shelters and living outdoors in seven counties—Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson.
The count found 6,884 people were experiencing homelessness on that night. The year before, the PIT didn’t include those living outdoors because of COVID-19 concerns. In 2020, the count found 6,104 people living unhoused. That’s a 12.8% increase over two years.
“While this count can help us understand homelessness on a single night, getting to a place where we have comprehensive, real-time data regionally is the ultimate goal,” said Jamie Rife, the director of MDHI.
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Each year when this count takes place, trained volunteers and staff are dispatched around the metro area to survey anyone they find who are unhoused using a standard set of questions. Over the course of several months, that data is compiled into this report.
Looking further into where people were found, the majority — 70% — were in shelters, according to the report. A number that remained nearly the same from 2020. While the number of unsheltered homelessness increased by nearly 500 people from pre-pandemic levels to 2,078 people. The majority of those found in this count were also found within the county of Denver at 4,794 individuals.
MDHI admits there are number of factors could affect the count including weather, how well the volunteers are engaged and how well the subjects of the survey interact with the staff and volunteers.
The encouraging news from the point in time count is the number of veterans experiencing homelessness did drop by 31% in the last two years.
“The region’s emphasis on reducing Veteran homelessness is yielding results,” said Rife.
Veterans are typically overrepresented among the homeless population and typically represent 9% of the total unhoused population. This year’s PIT count found only 432 veterans, which is less than 1% of the total unhoused population.
Also, within the data on the metro-area homelessness is a break down of race, showing an over representation of people of color among the unhoused. About 20% in the count identify as Black, African American or African while only making up about 6% of the population in these seven counties. A similar difference can also be found among those who identify as American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous with 6% among this PIT count and only make up 1.4% of the census for the area.
“The overrepresentation of people of color, specifically Black and Native Americans, among those experiencing homelessness is critical to the response,” Rife explained. “Homelessness is an issue of race and must be approached through this lens,” she added.
The harsh racial realities of homelessness stem from long-standing historical and structural racism that has not improved over time. This includes but isn’t limited to segregation, housing discrimination and access to quality health care.
[Read more: The National Alliance to End Homelessness on Homelessness and Racial Disparities.]
Part of the recommendations from the National Alliance to End Homelessness to help improve these disparities is to first collect and assess more accurate data. This is something MDHI is working toward beyond these PIT data collections.
Providers, cities and others in Colorado are working together to improve participation with the region’s Homeless Management Information System to make data accessible each day on those experiencing homelessness.
“This data highlights the dynamic nature of homelessness and the importance of real-time data to allow the region to coordinate effectively and allocate resources efficiently,” said Rife
This summer, Boulder became the first community in the area to reach Quality Data for all singles, which means accounting for every single adult experiencing homelessness by name, in real-time.
The data from this PIT survey will also be used by MDHI to release its annual State of Homelessness report next January. Estimates show that with these numbers close to 31,000 people in this seven-county region experience homelessness in one year.
You can look through more data from this survey on the MDHI website.
Amanda Horvath is the managing producer with Rocky Mountain PBS. You can email her at amandahorvath@rmpbs.org.