Hamilton County sees modest decline in unsheltered homelessness

After a substantial drop in 2023 following a spike during the pandemic, Hamilton County saw a more modest decline in unsheltered homelessness this year, according a numbers released Thursday by the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition.

In total, the number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in the county has remained level between 2023 and 2024, going from 785 to 783.

The agency counted 543 unsheltered homeless people in 2024, down from 607 in in 2023 and 1,008 in 2022. There were also 240 sheltered homeless people in Hamilton County this year, according to the figures, an increase from the 178 reported in 2023.

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Mackenzie Kelly, interim executive director of the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition, said the pandemic spurred an increase in the number of homeless people in Hamilton County, which jumped from 364 in 2021 to 1,008 in 2022.

“Last year’s reduction was more drastic because we had to quickly respond to this new wave of homelessness because of COVID,” Kelly said in a phone interview.

The pandemic also caused many people and families to become homeless for the first time, Kelly said.

“Statistically, (that) is a little bit easier population to get housed,” Kelly said. “We know the longer you experience homelessness, the harder it is to then move those folks into permanent housing.”

The annual count serves as a snapshot of homelessness on a single night. This year, it occurred Jan. 23. Kelly said cold weather that evening likely explains the increase in sheltered homelessness in 2024. That accounts for people who are staying in beds at places like the Salvation Army or the Chattanooga Rescue Mission and would otherwise be on the streets without those services.

Hamilton County has 227 shelter beds, which includes domestic violence but not cold weather shelters.

“It’s just the difference in our shelter beds being at maximum capacity versus last year they just weren’t,” Kelly said of the increase. “Last year, the weather conditions were just totally different.”

This year, volunteers tallied 680 unsheltered homeless people and 295 sheltered homeless people across the 11-county region, which includes Bledsoe, Bradley, Franklin, Grundy, Hamilton, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie counties. The majority of the region’s sheltered and unsheltered homeless were in Hamilton County.

Prior to the night of the annual count, an ice storm hit the region, making it difficult to access some of the roads, especially in rural counties, the coalition said in a news release Thursday.

“As such, we understand this could have impacted our count, specifically in the rural areas of the continuum of care,” the release said.

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In 2023, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly joined other officials in celebrating the nearly 40% decline in unsheltered homelessness.

His administration is trying to establish about 70 units of permanent supportive housing at a now-shuttered inn off Lee Highway. City staff recently reissued a request for proposals for the project after their preferred partner for the hotel conversion ran into legal trouble.

Late last year, Kelly’s office announced plans to turn a former transit building on East 12th Street into a 24/7 homeless shelter, but officials hit pause on that project amid pushback from neighbors.

Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.