Despite declines in the number of homeless people in Springfield the past three years, there is not enough capacity for local organizations to help all of those in need. As the stock of safe and affordable housing shrinks, so do opportunities for stable and permanent housing solutions.
Filling the gap in beds and services in the city would cost several million dollars. But those working to reduce homelessness and provide long-term solutions at the Community Partnership of the Ozarks say prevention can be a cheaper and more effective alternative to addressing capacity issues.
From October 2022 to September 2023, a total 1,654 individuals were served in the local homeless system. A large majority, 797 households, were experiencing homelessness for the first time. Adam Bodendieck, CPO’s senior director of homeless services, told Springfield City Council on Tuesday that these households most commonly are in a doubled-up housing situation that is not sustainable long-term. Households often find themselves in that situation after facing eviction due to rent prices they can’t afford.
“They were paying anywhere from upwards of 30-50% of their income towards their rent. That is not sustainable,” Bodendieck said. “That is not sustainable at all, because eventually you are going to come to a point where you have to make a decision: Am I going to pay my rent? Am I going to pay childcare? Am I going to pay medical bills? Am I going to fix the car that I rely on to get me to my job?”
Addressing problems upstream
From 2021 through 2023, the number of individuals experiencing homelessness across all populations in Springfield declined. However, during the pandemic years, Bodendieck said some resources were more accessible and there was more federal support for prevention. Those resources specific to the COVID-19 pandemic do not provide sustainable and ongoing support and that relief funding has dried up or will soon.
While the goal is always to secure safe and affordable permanent housing where an individual can lead a stable and independent life, homeless resources specifically for that purpose are the most limited, dependent on funding and is the slowest to turn over. The city’s housing study, completed last year, identified a “massive” deficit of 9,000 rental units for lower-income populations in general.
“It takes longer to be able to move people into permanent housing when there aren’t as many units, when we have a shortage, and we have a housing crisis in our community,” CPO’s Continuum of Care Director Emily Fessler said. “What we’re trying to do is really take all of those people in programming and squeeze them into units that really don’t exist in our community.”
To address these bottlenecks, Bodendieck said a larger emphasis has to be placed on keeping people out of the system altogether. A diversion program, similar to offerings during the pandemic, would be a roughly $4 million annual investment for the 800 households who are experiencing homelessness for the first time. This compares to hundreds of millions of dollars needed to build the shelters and housing needed to fill current capacity gaps.
“Shelter diversion and prevention is the only thing that is going to allow us to take this tidal wave and turn it into more of a trickle. Big trickle but compared to a tidal wave, I’ll take a trickle any time,” Bodendieck said.
He also pointed to additional supportive services that would address the need for more safe and affordable housing, such as a rental inspection program, housing navigation services, case management and deposit and moving cost assistance.
Crisis Cold Weather Shelters active Nov. 1
While CPO’s presentation focused on year-round resources and shelter, Nov. 1 the Crisis Cold Weather Shelter program will begin to provide emergency shelter on nights where temperature drops to 32 degrees or below. In a news release Monday, CPO called for volunteers to help ensure shelters are able to provide critical services during the winter season.
Although a shortage in shelter locations is still expected, CPO is trying to ensure there are enough volunteers to run the shelters that are available. Those interested in volunteering should fill out a volunteer form available at the CPO website www.cpozarks.org/programs/ccws.
SPRINGFIELD NEWS-LEADER