Mayor
Walsh and volunteers speaking with unsheltered individuals for the 2021
Census
BOSTON
- Thursday, January 28, 2021 - Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday led a
reduced group of volunteers, including City and State officials, homeless
services providers, and public health and safety first responders, in
conducting the City of Boston's 41st annual unsheltered homeless street count.
Census organizers intentionally reduced the number of volunteers this year
as a safety measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The street count
also started later and did not include the usual kickoff event at City
Hall, to prevent volunteers from gathering as a large group. The street
count is part of the City's comprehensive census of homeless adults, youth
and families in emergency shelters, transitional housing, and domestic
violence programs, and individuals staying outside in Boston each year.
"Every
year, our homeless census guides our work to dedicate programs and
resources to support individuals who face homelessness, and it plays a
vital role in our larger goal to prevent and end homelessness in the City
of Boston," said Mayor Walsh. "The homeless census also serves as
an important reminder of our shared commitment to helping our most
vulnerable residents. In Boston, we know everyone should be cared for and
respected, and deserves a place to call home."
The
annual homeless census is usually required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) as a key
component of Boston's $31 million federal grant for housing and services
for homeless households. This year due to the COVID-19 pandemic the
homeless census was not required by HUD, but was still conducted. The
census also helps inform the City of Boston's policy development and
allocation of resources. The information gained through the census is
shared with other homeless service providers to aid in the coordination
among the Continuum of Care
members. Boston continues to have the lowest percentage of unsheltered
people living on the street of any major city conducting a census, with
under 2 percent of Boston's homeless population sleeping on the street in
2019, the most recent year for which HUD has published national data.
Nationwide, 37 percent of all homeless persons were unsheltered in 2019.
This
year, roughly 80 volunteers canvassed 45 areas after midnight, covering
every city neighborhood, Logan Airport, and the transit and parks systems.
Volunteers canvassed their assigned areas, identified those sleeping on the
street, and conducted a short survey, when that could be conducted safely,
per COVID-19 guidelines. The surveys will be closely analyzed to ensure
accuracy and then cross-checked and combined with the results of the
simultaneous shelter count.
"When
we first thought about conducting our street count this year, we wondered
how to do so given concerns about the coronavirus," said Jim Greene
Assistant Director for Street Homelessness Initiatives for the City of
Boston. "We surveyed long time census team leaders and the response
was amazing; everyone agreed to help in any way they could. The overnight
and daytime emergency shelter staff, street outreach teams, homeless youth
workers, substance abuse and mental health clinicians, and first responders
who joined us for the count have been on the front lines of this work every
day throughout the pandemic. They have the skill and experience to conduct
a count and keep homeless people safe. We appreciate them stepping up again
tonight."
The
City of Boston's collaborative work to house, shelter, and keep homeless
individuals and families safe has continued throughout the pandemic. In
December, Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced that, despite the pandemic, since
the launch of Rising to the Challenge: Boston's Plan to Prevent and
End Youth and Young Adult Homelessness in
December 2019, the City of Boston has housed more than 100 youth between
the ages of 18 and 24 years old experiencing homelessness. As part of the
continued effort to end youth homelessness and support youth at risk of
becoming homeless, the Mayor also announced $335,000 to support career
training and college courses for 40 young people aged 18-24 at risk of
homelessness.
Boston's Way
Home, the City's plan to end chronic and veteran
homelessness prioritizes the housing first approach, an evidence-based
approach to ending homelessness that uses principles such as everyone is
deserving of permanent and stable housing without preconditions like
sobriety or treatment. Since the plan's launch in 2015, City agencies
and community partners have dramatically redesigned the way services are
delivered to homeless individuals, increasing resources devoted to housing
and deploying new technologies to match homeless individuals with housing
and services.
Since
the launch of Boston's Way Home, the City has:
- Housed more than 1,064
chronically homeless individuals, representing more than 6,700 years
of homelessness ended. (The
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines chronically
homeless individuals as adults with a disability who have been either
living in an emergency shelter or a place not meant for human
habitation continuously for 12 months or more, or who have had four
occasions of homelessness in the past three years that total 12 months
or more.)
- Reduced chronic homelessness in
Boston by 19 percent since 2016, at a time when chronic homelessness
has been rising nationally
- Housed more than 1,300 homeless
veterans and ended chronic homelessness among veterans
- Reduced the number of homeless
veterans in Boston on a single night by 32 percent since 2014, when
Mayor Walsh launched his Homes for the Brave Initiative to end veteran
homelessness
- Partnered with six affordable
housing owners in Boston to create a homeless veteran preference
within their housing
- Announced an action plan to support young Bostonians
experiencing homelessness
and awarded $4.7 million to create 157 housing opportunities for youth
and young adults that have already housed more than 100 young people
experiencing homelessness.
- Reached the goal of raising
more than $10 million for the Boston's Way Home Fund
to build 200 new units of supportive, long-term housing for
chronically homeless men and women.
The
City of Boston anticipates receiving more than $31 million from the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support Boston's
homelessness programs in 2021 through HUD's McKinney Homeless Continuum of
Care program. The funding was awarded through the Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2021, which renewed existing Continuum of Care
grants for another year.
To further prevent displacement, which can
lead to homelessness, Mayor Walsh filed and advocated for several pieces of
legislation during the 2019-2020 Massachusetts legislative session aimed at
protecting residents. The bills passed provide the City of Boston with more
flexibility to leverage the strong development market to fund affordable
housing and workforce training programs, and increase the State CPA match,
allowing Boston to invest more in our communities and support affordable
housing, historic preservation, and parks and open space. This work builds
on Boston's commitment to ensure all neighborhoods have affordable and
equitable housing options to benefit the most vulnerable and least
represented communities. Mayor Walsh was supportive of Governor Baker's
housing choice legislation that was recently signed into law. This policy
supports other municipalities in building up their affordable housing stock
which will provide more options for residents across the Commonwealth and
help ease Boston's housing burden.
The
results from this year's homeless census will be available in the coming
months.
About the Department of Neighborhood
Development (DND)
The
Department of Neighborhood Development is responsible for housing the
homeless, developing affordable housing, and ensuring that renters and
homeowners can find, maintain, and stay in their homes. As part of the
ongoing coronavirus response, the Office of Housing Stability is also
conducting tenant's rights workshops to educate residents about the eviction
moratorium and their rights. The Boston Home Center continues to provide
down payment assistance to first-time home buyers and home repairs for
seniors and low-income residents. The Supportive Housing Division is
working with various partners around the city to rapidly house individuals
who are experiencing homelessness. For more information, please visit the DND website.
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