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The leftist media keep pushing the notion that there is a problem with the free market in housing. Greenwich Time recently provided anecdotal stories about homeless seniors, while referencing a CT Insider (another Hearst Media publication) article about a purported three year spike in Connecticut homelessness. Other publications also trumpet an increase, while Democrats announce initiatives to tackle this problem in CT, and claim this issue is a problem and requires more money. If you google for news on the topic, you will only find articles about a housing crisis. You won’t find our previous articles, which google suppresses.
The report on homelessness to which they all refer contains a graph labeled “Statewide Homeless Persons – Sheltered and Unsheltered.” The totals in the report by Nutmeg consulting match HUD data, but show an abbreviated period. Here is the full HUD data set:
HUD reports (p8) indicate that the sharp decline in 2021 is due to HUD’s decision not to count all unsheltered homeless in 2021 due to Covid. The combined HUD data and Nutmeg data can be seen in the above graph. The long-term trend in homelessness is sharply downward, and the more recent trend is flat between 2019 and 2023, and 2024 is still well below prior years.
The same HUD data also shows that Connecticut has a total of 19,864 Continuum of Care (CoC) beds available in various forms of supportive housing.
But never mind the abundant resources available, what could explain the 13% increase in 2024 homeless? First, the data includes an unusually high estimate of the (20%) number of unsheltered homeless, where the 2016-2020 pre-covid average us 16%.
Second, one might look to the number of illegal immigrants in Connecticut. Estimates from 2022 put the number of “undocumented” in CT at 140,000, but these are based on older estimates and don’t account for the recent influx through the US-Mexico border of as many as 250,000 per month in 2023 and 2024. Many have been arriving at Westchester Airport as well as Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, New London, and other New York area airports. The Border Patrol reports that 714 arrived at CT airports in 2023, and an additional 49,500 arrived at NY area airports, and these numbers do not include other such immigration.
Given that illegal immigrants get many services in CT, and that non-profits which receive state support are instructed to resist efforts by Immigration Enforcement and even encourage staff to relocate undocumented immigrants to “a private location” in the event of any ICE enforcement, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to believe that the 400 new-for-2024 homeless in CT could be “undocumented.”
It is however a stretch to believe that 400 newly homeless in 2024 constitute a crisis that requires immediate government action and millions in funding. It is also a stretch to believe that the 2.5% average increase in CT rent in 2024 constitutes a crisis. Or that the availability of rentals is in any sort of a crisis, given an increase of 1,000 rental units on the market in 2024 which surpasses the 2023 peak.
What is certain, is that the CT Leftist media, including all Hearst publications and many others will keep parroting every Democrat imaginary crisis.
