Pitt County's 10 Year Plan To End Chronic Homelessness

What is Chronic Homelessness?

Chronic homelessness is long-term or repeated homelessness. As defined by federal governmental agencies, chronic homelessness includes homeless individuals with a disabling condition who have been homeless either continuously for one whole year or four or more times in the past three years. Virtually all chronically homeless people have a disability, many with serious mental illness like schizophrenia, alcohol or drug additional, and/or chronic physical illness. Most chronically homeless individuals have been in treatment programs, sometimes on dozens of occasions.

Homelessness means sleeping on the streets, in an emergency shelter or in a place not meant for human habitation.

Homelessness in Pitt County

In 2006, Pitt County Voices, a community-wide needs assessment sponsored by the United Way of Pitt County, identified homelessness as well as affordable and substandard housing as critical issues for Pitt County. In our community, on any given night at least 109 are homeless and many others live in overcrowded conditions. While this number may not seem significant, it suggests we are failing to meet the serious needs of our most vulnerable population.

• The poverty rate for Pitt County (21.6) exceeds the rate for the state of North Carolina (15%).
• Over 56% of renters in Pitt County pay more than 30% of their household income for rent, making them economically unstable and vulnerable to homelessness.

Chronically homeless individuals and homeless families use significant amounts of public funding .The chronically homeless make up 10% of the homeless population, but they use over 50% of the resources available, for example:

• Homeless people are more likely to access costly heath care services.
• They spend more time in jail or prison, sometimes for crimes as simple as loitering. The typical cost of a prison bed is $20,000 per year.
• Emergency shelters are an expensive alternative to permanent housing.
• Homeless children are less likely to overcome barriers to becoming contributing members of our community.