County Sees Jump in Homeless Families

Number of Children Served by Warm Nights Program Triples Over Last Year

The number of homeless families with children has increased significantly in Prince George's County over the past fiscal year, with one overnight housing program experiencing a 30 percent jump in the number of families it has served.

Council member William A. Campos (D-Hyattsville), vice chairman of the council's Health and Human Services committee, called the numbers alarming and said he does not see the trend reversing itself any time soon.

"The bad part is that we are only at the beginning," he said, referring to the economic downturn. "It's not going to get any better or any easier."

Tim Jansen, executive director of Community Crisis Services of Hyattsville, which coordinates help for the county's homeless, said the changes he witnessed in a single year were significant.

"Not only have the numbers changed, but we have found that the makeup of who is in those beds has changed dramatically," he said.

According to statistics the county Department of Social Services released to the council committee last week, the number of family members receiving shelter services in the county's Warm Nights Program rose from 19 percent of the total number of those who sought assistance in fiscal 2008 to 55 percent this year.

The program served 11 families between the end of November 2007 and the end of January 2008, which increased to 20 families during the same time a year later. The number of children served by the program increased from 16 to 48 over the same period.

The Warm Nights Program provides two meals daily and overnight stays to homeless individuals and families at 35 churches in the county. On a rotating basis, two churches open their doors each week, providing at least 25 beds each, as well as dinner and breakfast for the individuals and families.

Jansen said the program is one of four places that offer shelter in the county. Unlike the other shelters, which are open 24 hours, Warm Nights is a hypothermia program that runs from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and is designed to keep people off the street and from freezing to death.

Each day, Community Crisis Services does a census of the shelters in the county, refers individuals and families to them and provides case management. In addition to Warm Nights, Jansen refers families to the 100-bed Shepherd's Cove, a shelter in Capitol Heights for women and children.

Richelle Jackson, the manager at Shepherd's Cove, said the shelter is always over capacity, filled mostly with women who have been evicted from their apartments.

Jackson said the average mother has about three children, but she recalls one woman who sought shelter with six children and another who had four children and was pregnant.

"The people vary, and their circumstances vary," she said.

Some have lost their jobs. Some are victims of domestic violence. Jackson remembers one woman who could not afford the apartment she had been sharing with her mother after her mother passed away. At Shepherd's Cove, which is financed through the county, donations and grants, families can stay between 60 and 90 days. During that time, the shelter provides case managers to help them with transitional housing, rental assistance, educational training and other needs.

There was a sliver of good news in the information provided to the council.

In a one-day count of homeless people found on the streets, surveyors found fewer Jan. 28 than on the same day a year earlier. Surveyors went to the same locations and found 83 homeless people in 2008 and 38 in 2009. According to Karen Lynch, director of the Department of Social Services, the weather conditions were similar on both days.

Despite the decrease in homeless people found on the street, Lynch said she remains concerned about the increasing numbers of families seeking services. She said the county has focused much of its effort on preventing evictions and providing mortgage assistance to people facing foreclosure.

Lynch said the data released last week were just a portion of the information about homelessness in the county. The entire report will be available next month.