COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Homelessness across the state of Ohio increased by nearly 7% in 2023, as rent in the state increased by nearly 20% since 2021.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently released annual Point-in-Time Count (PIT) data, which is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. The latest data revealed a 6.9% increase in the state’s unhoused population. On one night in January 2023, at least 11,386 Ohioans were homeless.
Ohio’s 2023 PIT data also showed that unsheltered homelessness in the state had increased by 30% since the 2020 count, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This variation refers to situations where a homeless individual is not regularly accessing shelters, often sleeping in encampments, in their vehicles or in other locations not meant for human habitation.
Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) Amy Riegel said that Ohio’s increase in its unhoused population could be worse, but that it is still an issue facing the state.
“Ohio did see a 7% increase, but that increase was actually lower than the national average,” Riegel said. “The national average this year was a 12% increase. That, of course, is fueled by some states that have a more rapidly growing unhoused population. But for Ohio, though our increase was smaller than the national average, it was still very significant.”
The state’s increase in its unhoused population comes during a time when Ohioans have faced a nearly 20% increase in rent, with the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Ohio increasing by 18% from 2021 to 2023. Riegel pointed to this and one other key factor contributing to the state’s homelessness dilemma.
“Homelessness is, simply said, a housing issue,” Riegel said. “In the state of Ohio between 2021 and 2023, we saw rents increase by nearly 20%. Those rapidly rising rents are going to increase rates of homelessness. The sheer lack of housing, that we have been under-building housing in the state of Ohio, is going to increase homelessness.”
Riegel said that some of the increases in rent can be attributed to a return to normalcy as the world moved past the COVID-19 pandemic, but that the issue is also about supply and demand.
“I believe that rising rents are caused by, once again, that lack of units,” Riegel said. “When the supply is less than the demand, that price is going to rise.”
Riegel claimed that in addition to supply and demand, staffing to care for rental units, utilities, and other services have also contributed to increasing rents.
As for how to address rising rents and increases in the unhoused population, Riegel said that the first priority should be to urge the government to take action.
“One item is a governmental issue, and that is that most of the funding to address homelessness comes through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,” Riegel said. “We need to call on our congressional elected officials to pass a budget that would fund these services.”
“We need to build more affordable housing,” she added.
Riegel was also complimentary of the work that Ohio has already done to combat homelessness.
“The state of Ohio has actually done a great job at managing homelessness and using great practices to be able to make sure that homelessness is rare, one time, and that is in as short of duration as possible,” Riegel said. “We do have the tools here in Ohio to address homelessness, we just need to put those into place and strengthen them.”
To exemplify the tools that Ohio has to address homelessness, Riegel pointed to the state’s work with the unhoused veteran population. Ohio’s homeless veteran population saw a nearly 15% decrease since 2020, according to COHHIO.
“One thing that we have seen year over year is a decline in veteran homelessness and that is due to an effort at the national level to really bring multiple groups together to address veterans homelessness and to announce that we will end veteran homelessness,” Riegel said.
Riegel said that in Columbus during the pandemic, resources coming into the community for rental assistance were used to target people experiencing homelessness in two ways: those who had been homeless for a year or longer, or who had experienced at least four recent episodes of homelessness.
“Because of that, Columbus was one of the only communities in the state of Ohio to actually see a reduction in chronic homelessness rather than an increase,” Riegel said.
Overall, chronic homelessness in the state saw an increase of 64% since 2020, making Columbus an exception to the rule.
The executive director said that ensuring housing for veterans is the best thing the country can do to honor their service. However, she said that she would like to see policies that seek to help everyone facing homelessness.
“I would say that we should be doing the same thing for babies, for the elderly, for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Riegel said. “It doesn’t matter what category a person falls into, we should believe that homelessness is unacceptable and that everyone deserves a home and everyone should have a safe place to sleep at night.”
To learn more about COHHIO, which is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to ending homelessness and promoting decent, safe, fair, and affordable housing for all, visit its website.