The mission of Homeless Support Services is to fill a gap in the local Continuum of Care of Homeless Services by providing outreach, engagement, comprehensive assessment and referral services to people who are homeless or at great risk of homelessness; and to assist clients in developing a plan of action that moves them toward self-sufficiency.
 

The Winter 2009 Point-In-Time/Community Homeless Count for Charlotte-Mecklenburg North Carolina was released in March 2009. Key highlights include:

• The combined Winter 2009 Community Homeless Count exceeds 6,000 – a conservative estimate. (NOTE: The total of 6,550 possibly includes a small number of duplicate counts)
• The combined community count of homeless persons for January 2009 is up 22 percent from January 2008. The estimated count was 5,373 in 2008.
• The combined count includes three categories (download a definition fact sheet): 
• U.S. Housing and Urban Development defined homeless (2,481 in January 2009, up from 2,046 in January 2008, a 21 percent increase)
• Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) McKinney Vento federal definition of homeless children (2,433 in January 2009, up from 2,191 in January 2008, an 11 percent increase). As of March 1, 2009, the number increased to 3,050, and is expected to exceed 3,500 by June 2009.
• Community other (1,636 in January 2009, up from 1,136 in January 2008, a 44 percent increase) and includes jail inmates, homeless in hospitals, foreclosed and evicted, and agencies not counted in other above categories. 
• From January 2008 to the present, CMS continues to see a large increase in homeless children due to home foreclosures and evictions related to the economy and housing issues. CMS numbers surged as the school system counted more than 100 new homeless children monthly starting in January 2008, leading to a school year total of 3,391.

For information about HUD's definition of, and response to homelessness, go to: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/index.cfm

For more information on the effects of homelessness in our community, call the Homeless Support Services at 704-926-0617.