Numbers Up in Anderson County Homeless Count

By Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Counting those without housing in a community is key to helping fund the charitable organizations, as well as city, county and state governments seeking to help those who need help. Every county in the country participates in the count,

The annual United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Point-in-Time Count (PITC) homeless count was just completed in Anderson County, and the information highlights the growing need for low-income and affordable housing for the working class.

HUD’s method for the annual count is to identify those considered without housing, on a single night, this year it was Jan. 24, and extrapolate the numbers from that information. Included among those considered homeless by the count include anyone who is sheltered in an emergency shelter, sleeping in their car, in transitional housing, sleeping in tents, staying in a place with no roof, are considered homeless by HUD’s standards.

Local groups canvas the county to survey those in one or more of those categories to identify the need. A collaborative effort, led by Hope Missions of the Upstate, which also included Upstate Warrior Solution and the Salvation Army of Anderson (which provides the county’s only permanent emergency lodging facility), found more than 300 individuals met the criteria for homelessness, nearly double the number from the previous year.

The actual number of those who at some point during 2023 may have experienced homelessness in Anderson County last year was 5,400, according to Zoë Hale, one of the directors of Home Missions of the Upstate in Anderson.

Hope Missions, which publishes the Resource Guide for helping family, friends and neighbors in need in Anderson, also employs a housing navigator, which helped 145 homeless individuals find housing in 2023 (that they can document, but others were also likely led to housing through the program). The navigator works with other agencies, landlords and others to help streamline the process and aid those who have never been without housing find a path to a new place to live.

The PITC count is also aimed at highlighting the human cost of homelessness, with the goal of building more community support for funding and solutions.

HUD’s Jan. 2023 report found that nationally, more than 650,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, a 12 percent increase from 2022. The report also includes the Housing Inventory Count of shelter and housing resources to serve people experiencing homelessness.