DeKalb County homeless populations are increasing.

“We have definitely seen a bump over the last three months,” said Lesly Wicks, executive director of Hope Haven, 1145 Rushmore Drive, DeKalb.

But homelessness is not necessarily a direct result of the current state of the economy.

“When it comes to the number of homeless individuals, the economy that you see today won’t affect the current homeless situation,” said Sue Guio, DeKalb Community Services Planner. “It will have a trickle down effect over the next few months or years.”

There are two kinds of homelessness: situational and chronic.

“What we’ll probably start to see [is] a spike in is situational homelessness,” Guio said.

Those who are situationaly homeless tend to have more options than those chronically homeless.

“I think it’s true in most rural communities that people tend to help each other out,” Guio said. “But when you have people who are chronically homeless, there is no one for them to go to and ask for help.”

Chronic homelessness has remained one of the larger populations in the county.

“Most of the people we’ve been dealing with for the last few years are people chronically homeless,” Guio said.

Other homeless populations have begun to see an increase over the last few years.

“The fastest growing homeless population is homeless families with children,” Wicks said.

In order to help deal with the growing populations, the DeKalb Continuum of Care (CoC), a division of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has come up with a plan to help address
the homeless problems in the community.

“We’re putting together a 10 year plan,” said Kelley Chrisse, DeKalb County community development block grant intern. “We want a broad base of people to really identify what the problems in the community are.”

Chrisse stresses the importance of community involvement with the situation.

“It is something that effects the community as a whole in terms of services,” Chrisse said. “I think all too often there are community members who don’t feel they need to help.”

The first meeting will be held on Nov. 13 and is open to the public.

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