Unfortunately I had known that the homeless population has exploded in Norristown because I can see it and it has been stretching out to neighboring areas but I had no idea that there was a 118% increase in MontCo from 2021-22!
Advocates say there’s ‘no place’ for unhoused people in Norristown, where it may soon be illegal to stay in parks past dusk
https://whyy.org/articles/norristown...ark-ordinance/
“We’ve seen homelessness at record levels … we’ve never seen so much homelessness,” said Jessica Fenchel, vice president of adult behavioral health for Access Services, which does outreach to people without housing in several eastern Pennsylvania counties.
The number of unhoused people across Montgomery County has risen by at least 118% from 2021 to 2022, according to the county’s 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) count. According to the PIT, as of January 2022, 568 individuals were sleeping in one of the county’s emergency shelters (including hotel rooms paid for with public funding), transitional housing projects, or outdoors.
Of the 568 unhoused people, about 200 are based in Norristown, according to Mike Kingsley, the shelter and outreach manager at the Norristown Hospitality Center.
On top of that, the Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center — Montgomery County’s only 24/7 emergency housing service for single adults — closed on June 30. The organization tried to extend their lease to bid for more time to find a new home, but Norristown rejected the request. The land is set to be conveyed to Norristown.
Norristown is one of the poorest Municipalities in Montgomery County, rent is on the rise, and affordable housing is scarce across the suburbs. Many people in Norristown are on the brink of homelessness, Kingsley said. The Norristown Hospitality Center is “constantly” getting calls from families who say they are about to lose their apartment, he said.
“The timing of this is saying, even more … to people who are homeless: ‘There’s no place for you,’” Fenchel said.
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