Late one night last week, Lake County Board Vice Chair Mary Ross Cunningham was sitting in the passenger seat of an SUV driving slowly down the streets of her district. Spotting a lone figure walking down the sidewalk, she asked the driver to pull over.
“Are you homeless?” she asked. After an affirmative response, Cunningham chatted with the 22-year-old, and handed over a bag of supplies and a gift card. The group then waited until a van arrived to drive the young homeless person to a shelter for the night.
Cunningham was one of more than 100 volunteers and a small fleet of cars patrolling Lake County on the night of Jan. 29 as part of the 2025 Homeless Point-in-Time Count that she has taken part in for over two decades. The county was broken into smaller regions, and teams of volunteers were given a map of several common locations to check within their regions.
Among the volunteers were numerous other local officials, including several fellow County Board members. Cunningham was happy to see them, saying it is important for local officials to take part.
“It’s real value because we find homeless in their districts,” she said. “They don’t know what’s in their district.”
PIT Count
The survey, led by the Lake County Coalition for the Homeless in collaboration with Lake County Community Development, continued into early Thursday. The PIT Count measures unhoused individuals and families across Lake County on a single night every January.
Volunteers and staff will conduct further interviews and pull additional information from local shelters and agencies, and that data will be reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to demonstrate Lake County’s need for federal assistance.
The results of the census will be interesting. Last year’s count found Lake County’s homeless population had increased by 50% over the year before, and whether that trend continues is to be determined. While data won’t be available until the spring, Dominic Strezo, community development administrator with Lake County, previously said he expected numbers to be in line with those of last year.
According to last year’s results, the majority of unhoused people in Lake County were staying in motel shelters or transitional housing, but 75 were sleeping outside – more than double the 30 reported the year before.
Lake County is far from an outlier. A 2023 Associated Press report showed that the United States experienced a 12% increase in homelessness, the most since the country began using the point-in-time survey in 2007. About 653,000 people were homeless nationwide, an increase of about 70,650 from a year earlier.
In Lake County, data from 2023 showed 85% of the homeless were unhoused for the first time, as well as a 75% increase in family homelessness. Shortly before volunteers set off, County Board Chair Sandy Hart talked about the rise in homelessness, and what she called a false narrative that the individuals were to blame.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Hart said. “People cannot afford to live in houses. There’s not enough affordable housing.”
Hart thanked the many volunteers that made the census possible. The window for volunteering had to be closed early because there were too many people hoping to take part.
“I want to thank the overwhelming number of Lake County residents who volunteered,” Hart said in a press release. “They left their warm homes to seek out our unhoused neighbors to help them find permanent shelter. Family homelessness is increasing around the country, and Lake County is no exception.”
Eric Foote, president of the Lake County Coalition for the Homeless, warned in the release that homelessness can impact “anyone at any time,” whether it be themselves or someone they know.
“When that happens, a community’s resources are called upon to assist,” he said. “The P.I.T. Count is an excellent example of the community coming together to help make a difference for those experiencing homelessness.”
Lake County is “firmly committed to addressing homelessness,” the release said. It pointed to the rising cost of housing as a significant contributor to the growing number of people and families facing homelessness.
“The County’s Strategic Plan prioritizes increasing the supply of affordable housing in support of fostering a healthy and inclusive community,” the release said.
Small victories
As Cunningham spoke to each person her group encountered out on the street, she asked who they knew and where they normally stayed. Often she learned they knew one of her relatives or friends. Several of the people Cunningham and her group encountered were young. It made her sad to see that, Cunningham said several times.
Well after midnight, Cunningham’s group called it a night and headed back to the Central Permit Facility, which acted as headquarters for the night’s efforts.
They managed to convince a couple of people to accept shelter for the night, which she said they took as a win.