The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its 2024 homelessness numbers, less than a week before the year ended. The numbers went way up – a full 18% increase over 2023. In Bucks County, HUD’s count went from 320 to 409 persons experiencing homelessness in 2024 – an increase of nearly 25%.
Murielle Kelly, Director of Housing Services for Family Service Association of Bucks County, didn’t hesitate when pointing out that the elimination of protections put in place during the COVID 19 pandemic was – at least in part – to blame. “After COVID and the loss of the emergency rental program, costs went up – a lot! A one bedroom [apartment] that went for $1000 before the pandemic is now $1400 and up.”
Tammy Rosing, Pennsylvania organizer for the National Union of the Homeless, explains, “During Covid, the housing market just went crazy. People with money started scooping things up.” Post pandemic, “We had people left and right that were being asked to move because the landlord was selling the property. Because people with money were gobbling up the housing market, rents rose.”
Kelly adds that it’s not just the cash on hand for those more expensive rents that’s a barrier. Even if renters have the money, they don’t have proof of income. “You need an income that’s three times the rent to qualify. No member of the working poor is bringing $4300 a month home.”
According to the Labor Law Center’s income information gathered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, many Bucks County occupations make far less than the $52,000 necessary to qualify for that $1,400, one-bedroom rental. Individuals working in healthcare support, food preparation, personal care, sales, office admin, farming and other agriculture, cleaning and grounds keeping, as well as transportation and material moving don’t come close to crossing the threshold to provide proof of income. Kelly notes that renters with incomes that hover in the 30 to 40 thousand range struggled to pay the old rents – they are priced completely out of the market now.
Worse still, according to Rosing, housing wasn’t the only rug pulled out from under the Bucks County underemployed struggling to make ends meet. Rosing asserts, “During COVID,” in order to keep an unemployed and ailing country compliant while government leadership mismanaged the healthcare crisis, “They gave us things we weren’t used to having: Minimum income with the stimulus checks, unemployment security, moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures … and expanded Medicaid.”
In fact, the Foundation for Child Development notes that when the U.S. Congress passed the federal stimulus funding, child credits and increased aid to individuals and families, the results were so far reaching that childhood poverty was cut in half.
Rosing says that all those safety mechanisms are gone now. “Now we’re quote, unquote, back to normal. In April 2023 they started doing the Medicaid refusals – what they call ‘unwinding’ and [nationally] 25 million people have been cut off Medicaid.” According to the Hospital/Healthcare System of PA, 850,000 individuals were “unwound” from the program in Pennsylvania alone – as subscribers floundered with one of the worst Medicaid renewal processes in the nation.
Still, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, more than 50,000 Bucks County residents survived the unwinding process and continue to receive Medicaid.
Brandi Stewart, a Street Healthcare Nurse for Family Service Association of Bucks County sees these people every day as her work with the county’s poorest individuals grows.
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“There’s definitely an increase [in homelessness]. And it’s elderly people. People in their 60s. Lots of chronic illness. Right now, I’ve got two people on dialysis – one in kidney failure. I’ve got people with heart failure. So much chronic disease. These are sick, sick people.”
Stewart sees firsthand that people are waiting for a very limited housing supply. “It takes forever to get into senior housing.” But it’s not just old folks. The street nurse says she’s identifying more homeless families this year, too. “I’ve seen more chronically homeless who have children. Married couples and individuals,” who have left their children in a safe place, “like with grandparents.”
And with the increased numbers comes increased need. “We’ve gone through all of our blankets. All of our jackets. We had fifty to sixty jackets.” Stewart marvels at the lack of options. “There’s not anywhere for our street homeless to go. We used to have encampments. But the townships don’t want encampments – at least it was someplace to go.”
Stewart’s reordered blankets but she can’t reopen the camps. She tries to meet her clients wherever they can find a place to set, “I’m seeing more people in cars. It’s the extreme weather; it’s pushing our clients to their limits. They want clothing, warmth, Tylenol. Sometimes they’ll see me and say, ‘I’ve had a headache for a week.’ We try to keep them comfortable – as comfortable as they can be on the street.”
And when her clients do find housing, Stewart and her street medicine team follow them for 30 days. “A lot of them now will go to nursing homes or shared housing, just to get off the street.”
Stewart reminds the patients that she sees that, “The quickest way to get help is the shelter.”
Unfortunately, the shelter has a waiting list. Kelly – who keeps a close eye on the shelter explains, “It takes four to six weeks to get a single individual in because we are constantly prioritizing families with children.” Currently, the Family Service Association of Bucks County has 84 people waiting for shelter. “78 households with 34 single men and three single women,” all desperate for a place to stay.
In Bucks County – during the colder months of December through March – the Coalition to Shelter & Support the Homeless provides overnight accommodation for adults who may or may not be on that waiting list. With the help of area churches and legions of volunteers, persons who otherwise sleep in their cars or in the woods are encouraged to seek temporary refuge – if – the temperature outdoors has a “real feel” of 28 degrees or lower. Wind chill factors and other winter elements impact the decision to open the shelter to the public.
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Ruth Boone, treasurer of the Coalition to Shelter and Support the Homeless, shared comparisons for the organization’s statistics over the past two years. “We are definitely seeing a spike in our census. Last December (2023) we provided shelter on 12 nights with an average of 13 persons each night. This December (2024) we averaged 22 persons for 19 nights. That’s a huge increase. And January hasn’t started out much better.”
Rosing fears what will happen if funding for housing, soup kitchens and shelters is “unwound” the way Medicaid has been – adjusting it downward, even further below pre-covid levels. “Because we live the life that poverty throws us, we can’t qualify for housing. We’re not guaranteed food, housing or healthcare. It doesn’t matter what happens to us. They [local and national leaders] know this is going to happen when they make the cuts, so the only solution then becomes criminalization.”
Since the HUD 2024 Point in Time homelessness surveys, and the Supreme Court of the United States ruling allowing municipalities to fine or detain persons experiencing homelessness, National Homeless Law Center says that municipalities in 26 states have passed 99 ordinances outlawing sleeping out of doors. A full report is expected out this winter. While Rosing fears that this is only the beginning – Bucks County agencies will continue to provide what help they can to their neighbors in need.
