NC Housing Coalition holds virtual conference to address homeless
More than 9,000 people are experiencing homelessness across the state, according to data from January 2020.
A little more than 800 of those people were families, and almost 800 of them were veterans.
The number of people experiencing homeless in North Carolina has likely increased due to economic woes from the pandemic, experts say.
The cost of living in Wake County has also been increasing over the years. The average home in Raleigh costs more than $260,000.
Living wage in the county has also been rising. Even though $7.25 is the statewide minimum wage, someone has to make more than $16.32 an hour in order to support themselves in Wake County.
On Tuesday, the North Carolina House Commission held a conference called "Bring it Home 2021" to address ending homelessness in the state.
The goal of the two-day conference was to come up with workable strategies and practices to get people into permanent housing.
"We do need to make sure we are helping the folks that are most in need in our community first," said Brian Alexander, project specialist with the coalition. "Because that means the length of time for homelessness for all of our folks in our community lengthens, if we're not doing that."
The U.S. Department of Urban Housing and Development estimated that homelessness is increasing, and more than 580,000 people were experiencing homelessness nationwide. That number was recorded before the pandemic.
Local leaders from all across the state were featured in the conference.
The speakers discussed shelters, affordable housing and recruiting landlords. Officials also talked about how to make affordable housing more accessible for people of color.
