WV’s homeless population increased by 25% in 2024, following national trends

The number of people experiencing homelessness on a single winter night in West Virginia increased by about 25% from 2023 to 2024, according to point-in-time estimates released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. These counts, conducted annually during the last 10 days of January, provide a snapshot of homelessness across the country, including both sheltered and unsheltered individuals.

Point-in-time counts offer a snapshot of homelessness. Volunteers in communities around the country count both sheltered and unsheltered homeless people on a single night. The surveys are federally mandated to take place each year during the last 10 days of January.

Advocates say the counts underestimate the true scale of the homelessness crisis by excluding some homeless people, for instance those who are staying with friends or family because of economic hardship and those in jails or hospitals. A state-commissioned report last year found that on average, between 2018 and 2023, on average 3,624 people per year in West Virginia experienced literal homelessness.

According to the HUD 2024 report, released in December, 2024 saw the highest number of homeless people in the United States ever recorded. On a single night, 771,480 people stayed in an emergency shelter, safe haven, transitional housing program or in unsheltered locations across the country, up about 18% from 653,100 in 2023.

Several factors are responsible for the increase, the report says, including a national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits.

In addition, public health crises, natural disasters, rising numbers of people immigrating to the U.S., and the end to homelessness prevention programs put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the end of the expanded child tax credit, made the problem worse, the report says.

In West Virginia, 1,779 people experienced homelessness on a night in January 2024, up from 1,416 the year before.

Point in time counts are coordinated by West Virginia’s four continuums of care, which are regional or local planning bodies that coordinate housing and services funding for homeless people.

Paige Looney, a data management specialist for the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, said for the 44 counties served by the Balance of State Continuum of Care, multiple factors have contributed to an increase in recent years, including the ending of funding meant to mitigate damage from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In these more recent years, as those COVID relief funds have kind of dried up, any eviction prevention funds are more limited now, that’s also been a contributing factor,” Looney said. She added that the continuum of care has gotten more volunteers in recent years, which likely has led to better counts of

Source: Read the original report