For the first time in more than a decade, family homelessness outpaces individual homelessness in Central New York. More than half of the unhoused individuals in the region are a part of a family without a home, according to the Housing and Homeless Coalition of CNY. HHC found that the 526 members of families who are unhoused make up about 52% of the total number of the homeless population in Cayuga, Oswego, and Onondaga Counties. The numbers are based on an HHC count of unhoused residents performed in January 2024 that determines how much federal funding is disbursed to a region based on need. This survey is known as the Point-In-Time count. HHC Executive Director Megan Stuart said that the growing number of homeless families is staggering and unheard of in the region, at least in the past decade. The increase in homeless families is part of a staggering, exponential boom in the homeless population in the region. Since 2019, homelessness is up 150% in Central New York. About 71% of unhoused people in the three-county region are in Onondaga County. The organization provided this data to Central Current and presented it at its “State of Homelessness” event in late November. While the organizations that make up HHC used the $12.7 million allocated by the federal government this year to rehouse residents without a home in the region, having to tailor efforts toward providing housing for families changed the math, Stuart said. Rehousing homeless families poses a more complicated challenge for service providers for two reasons: the region doesn’t have enough housing that can accommodate a family, and programs to aid with rapid rehousing in the past few years have been mostly geared toward addressing individual homelessness. “A lot of investment went to single individuals, and a lot of housing development is targeted to build one bedroom and at best two bedroom units,” Stuart said. “It’s just easier for developers to do that and more cost effective. So the inventory for families just doesn’t exist and that is really putting a strain on service providers trying to keep families housed and then rehousing them when they’re in shelter.”Increases in the number of homeless families is indicative of the area’s larger housing crisis. Stuart said that it shows families cannot afford rent increases at a time when places like the city of Syracuse are experiencing historic rent raises. That inability to keep up with rent, she added, leads to displacement, which results in families being evicted.All of these elements, advocates say, have led to an untenable perfect storm with no end in sight.“There are so many factors whittling down families’ choices to find a place to live,” said Jocelyn Richards, a member of the Syracuse Tenants Union. “People just don’t have a place to go.”Advocates say that as providers continue to rapidly rehouse homeless families and individuals a clear solution is in sight: keep Central New Yorkers in their homes. “It shocks people when I tell them how little there is available to folks to keep them housed,” Stuart said. “Every time someone asks me what they should do or where they should go to remain in their homes, a lot of times, the answer is nowhere.”About 11 organizations across the three counties serve these families, mostly through rent subsidies. The most effective programs, Stuart said, pay for 24 months worth of rent for families. These are known as medium term subsidy programs.“It’s a small pot compared to the need to be able to provide things like a security deposit and  first month’s rent for new places, which help people avoid the shelter altogether,” Stuart said.How did the region end up here?The number of unhoused residents in CNY has been growing steadily at least for the past three years. From 2022 to 2023, HHC found a 30% increase in overall homelessness, totalling more than 800 people staying in emergency shelters every night. That number is higher than any count the organization had worked with since 2015. HHC saw an increase to 1,019 this January, Stuart said.Family homelessness, Stuart said, is the category that shows the most dramatic increase, around 75%, from 300 homeless individuals in families in 2023 to 526 this year. Stuart said this is due to increasing rents, a bad housing inventory with diminished options for families, and programs largely targeting individual homelessness. Ultimately, all of these factors have the potential to arrive at the same destination: displacement.“We definitely don’t have enough resources to serve everyone,” Stuart said.Michelle McElroy, the chief program officer at ACR Health, said high rent rates can hinder the organization’s ability to rehouse unhoused individuals through their program. ACR’s program helps rehouse members of the LGBTQ community in Onondaga County. Landlords, McElroy said, often charge more than what the federal government is willing to pay through ACR’s program, which is measured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fair market rate benchmark. “Even when apartments are available, they may not meet the fair market rent requirements, and we can’t pay more,” McElroy said.In Syracuse, rent price data indicates that landlords are charging more than the area’s FMR for two and four bedroom units, which tend to house families. For instance, an analysis from Zumper shows the area’s median rents: A two-bedroom apartment: $1,456, about $135 more than the FMR of $1,321 A four-bedroom apartment: $3,400, about $1,579 more than the FMR of $1,821Zumper data shows median rent prices for three-bedroom apartments are being rented at slightly below FMR. The median rent price of a three-bedroom apartment according to Zumper is $1,616, while the 2025 FMR is $1,595.Stuart said service providers also struggle finding housing that suits the needs of families. “Housing families are more expensive, even if it is just a subsidy project, those cost more,” she said. “We only have a little investment in the community to do that. It makes it more expensive for us to serve families through the limited dollars and resources we have.”But even when the inventory does exist, it is often in disrepair. The city’s housing study, commissioned to seek an understanding of Syracuse’s issues with housing, shows that about a third of residential structures in the city are in visible decline.McElroy said often options aren’t up to the city and states’ property conservation codes, which she noted are much less stringent than the requisite HUD’s housing quality standards that landlords need to clear in order to participate in federal subsidy programs.“If the unit meets FMR, but doesn’t pass the inspection, we can’t subsidize it unless the landlord addresses the deficiencies that were found during the inspection,” McElroy said. “And sometimes landlords are not willing to address those concerns.”For Richards, the increase in homeless families shows tenants are trapped in a perfect storm where they are at the mercy of a system that could displace them over time. She said she agreed affordability, lack of inventory and choice, and evictions all contribute to a rise in homelessness. This year, Syracuse City Court judges have granted 1,688 eviction warrants to property owners in the city.“Affordability and disrepair are pushing people out of their homes, and there’s also nowhere to go,” Richards said. “So it’s kind of a perfect storm.”Richards said that the city’s old housing stock and a lack of incentive for landlords to make expensive repairs leads to bad housing conditions, citing the city’s own housing study as evidence. Consultants wrote in the study that it would take rent being $1,800 a month for landlords to catch up on deferred maintenance and start routinely upgrading and maintaining a single rental unit. Only 27% of households in Syracuse can afford that, according to the study.“The cost of generating properly maintained residential real estate in Syracuse exceeds what many households are willing to pay for their housing or to improve their housing,” czb consultants wrote in the study’s final report. Richards said that in her experience working with tenants over the past five years, bad housing conditions depreciate properties and can push landlords to sell their properties at lower values to get out of the business and recoup some of their investment. This, she said, attracts out of town landlords with large real estate portfolios who buy properties at lower values.  These owners’ distance from Syracuse then puts tenants at risk, Richards said. Not only do some landlords from out of state not know New York’s eviction laws, which can potentially lead to illegal evictions, but it also means that not being near their properties can make it even more difficult to get maintenance work scheduled and performed.“Just building more affordable housing is not going to be a full solution,” Richards said.Proposed solutionsStuart said HHC is asking service providers to include funding requests to the federal government that go toward rent subsidies for more families. Beyond that, sweeping legislative changes will have to occur, Stuart said.“Production is one thing. We need to create more affordable housing opportunities,” Stuart said. “There is not enough housing for everyone who needs it, and that takes time.”Part of that advocacy will have to come from state and federal lawmakers, who Stuart said should lobby for the creation of more programs that can subsidize the development of housing units with more than two bedrooms. Another potential solution would be for municipalities to pass measures like “good cause” eviction, a state eviction protection bill that localities can opt into, Stuart and Richards said. The bill could help tenants remain in their home, as well as challenge undue rent hikes.Under the bill, tenants:Could challenge evictions filed in court for reasons not stated in the lease agreement. Could contest at eviction hearings rent increases above 10% of the yearly rent or 5% plus the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Would be allowed to renew their lease automatically if they are caught up on rent and have abided by the terms of their lease.“We need to make sure people aren’t losing their housing frequently,” Stuart said. “Unless we’re able to prevent more people from becoming homeless in the first place, there’s not much we can do if we’re just working on the back end of getting people rehoused.” read more of central current’s coverage Central Current Radio: A look inside the newsroom Executive Director Maximilian Eyle and Managing Editor Chris Libonati discuss their highest impact stories, share why the nonprofit model is critical for newsrooms today, and highlight their plans to expand even further in 2025. by Maximilian Eyle December 31, 2024December 31, 2024 Man at the center of Syracuse’s payroll modernization effort resigns Chief Administrative Officer Frank Caliva’s departure comes two days after a Central Current story about the city’s failure to get payroll modernization off the ground. Caliva was hired to modernize city payroll, among other duties. by Chris Libonati December 23, 2024December 23, 2024 2024: Central Current’s year in review In a time when more than two newspapers shut down each week across the country, we are proud to be adding new staff, producing more coverage, and growing our footprint. by Maximilian Eyle December 23, 2024January 6, 2025 The post For the 1st time in more than a decade, family homelessness outpaces individual homelessness in Central New York appeared first on Central Current.