The Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care is out with the results from the 2024 Point in Time Homeless report. The homeless count is done each year during the last week of January. For this year, the Hampden County report showed 2901 homeless people – up about 8 percent.
Gerry McCafferty, Springfield’s Director of Housing and administrator of the Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care, states: “Unfortunately, we are not surprised by the overall increase in homelessness. Like the rest of Massachusetts and much of the nation, Hampden County does not have enough housing units, which has led to dramatic rent increases in the last few years. At the same time, the influx of federal and state assistance available during the COVID-19 pandemic has now been exhausted, so we have fewer resources to help. These factors come together to drive more people into homelessness and make it harder for people to get back into housing.”
The count of individuals without children was 555, a decrease of 5.9% from the 2023 count.
In the 12 months before the count, caseworkers helped 731 people get back into housing, and many more homeless people regained housing without the assistance of case workers. Another 204 homeless people were assisted to reunite with family members or to access nursing homes, treatment programs, or extended medical care needed to resolve their homelessness.
(Photo by COLE BURSTON/AFP via Getty Images)