In late December of 2024, Part 1 of the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) was released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This report contained Point in Time (PIT) counts, which is the method by which the homeless population is estimated. The 2024 PIT counts were an 18% increase from 2023, which was itself a record increase of 12% from 2022 (HUD Exchange, 2024a; HUD Exchange, 2023). Despite the claim made by Barack Obama in 2013 that the current approach of “Housing First” would end homelessness by 2023, PIT counts have increased every year for the past 10 years (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2024). With more money being devoted to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide homelessness services year over year, the issue is not with the amount of money NGOs receive, but rather how they spend it. Senate Bill 399 would require an audit of these service providers in order to ascertain their success or failure in prioritizing self sufficiency for those seeking to exit homelessness.
Hope for the Homeless
AUSTIN—Treat people like they can’t take care of themselves, and they’ll start to believe it—that’s the lesson Chris Baker, founder of The Other Ones (TOO), has learned. His non-profit work program for the homeless handed out free bus passes and cell phones to the workers it was helping. The problem was that these donations kept...