The “volunteer” homeless — Homefull staffers, community residents and some University of Dayton students — earlier in the evening watched a documentary that focused on the life of a homeless woman. It’s all part of National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week.
“It’s a pretty somber evening, actually,” said Trudy Elder, chief strategic officer for the local nonprofit that provides services to single adults and families with children in Dayton and Montgomery County.
“We don’t assume that spending one night out is anywhere close to what it must really be like for folks who find themselves without shelter or who are really in housing instability,” said Elder, who has participated in the sleep out event for 16 years. “But it always turns out to be a humbling evening.”
According to Homefull, nearly 900 people go homeless on any given night in Dayton and Montgomery County. Nearly 40 percent of these are families with children.
“As we head into the elements of winter that are so very cold, we certainly think about the safety of people, making sure that they do have a place to get off the streets if they need to,” Elder said.
This year, it is warmer than it usually is in mid-November, she said, but the message remains clear — making sure everybody has a place to live.
Homefull provides an array of services for those who are at any point on the continuum of homelessness. Those who are risk of homelessness, may be assisted to prevent them from losing their housing. The currently homeless population receives case management and housing services at the two gateway shelters, and for those who have recently been housed, Homefull provides follow up services to help stabilize them so they don’t have to return to the shelter.
Homefull began in 1988 as a daytime drop-in shelter (The Other Place). Now in its 28th year, the agency employees 70 or so and provides a comprehensive approach to serving the homeless and ultimately ending it.
Tonight’s event occurs against the backdrop of an announcement from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which issued a report concluding that homelessness continues to decline in the U.S., specifically among families with children, veterans, and individuals with long-term disabling conditions according to the department’s latest national estimate.
Also, HUD’s 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress found the overall number of persons experiencing homelessness in Ohio on a single night in 2016 fell by 17 percent since 2010, the year the Obama administration launched Opening Doors, the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness.