ROANOKE, Va. – It’s a crisis here at home and across the country, homelessness.
And the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Roanoke Valley is growing.
According to the Blue Ridge Continuum of Care’s Winter 2024 Point in Time Report, 402 people are experiencing homelessness in the Roanoke Valley.
In 2023, that number was 334. From year to year, that count increased by 20%.
Roanoke’s Human Services Administrator, Matt Crookshank said there are a variety of reasons why this could be.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing a lot of the same issues across the country with affordable housing challenges, economic challenges with inflation and how that affects low income households,” said Crookshank.
Another number on the rise, the number of people considered unsheltered, like people who sleep outside, in abandoned buildings or in their cars.
This year, 76 people were counted as unsheltered, which is up 105% from last year.
Dawn Sandoval with The Least of These Ministry offers services to people experiencing homelessness, especially those who are unsheltered.
She said they’ve seen an increase in people using their services, an even larger increase than the Point in Time Report.
“We had seen 472 unduplicated individuals last year and this year it’s been 614,” said Sandoval.
With the growing number of people in need, TLOT is looking for more volunteers.
And the City of Roanoke is also making adjustments.
With the growing number of people in need, Roanoke has made adjustments to their approach.
“We’ve hired additional outreach workers. The city, the HAT Team has expanded to five full-time outreach workers. So our team has increased so we can serve more folks,” said Crookshank.
The Blue Ridge Continuum of Care conducts two Point in Time Reports each year, one in the Winter and another in the Summer.
The summer count is scheduled to happen on Tuesday morning.