That was the message delivered by Shalom’s Executive Director Forrest Gilmore during the center’s annual report Thursday at the Fountain Square Ballroom.
“We’ll start with a big number — 333. This is the number of people experiencing homelessness in our community on any given day,” Gilmore said to a crowd of about 75 people. “They’re in shelters. They’re living in cars or abandoned buildings, living in the woods or on the streets. They’re amongst us and around us and doing their best to survive.”
Gilmore said that number was a slight decline from the previous year, which is exciting but there is still a long way to go, he noted. While family homelessness went down by nine individuals, chronic homelessness increased slightly, as did homelessness among veterans.
There has been an upward trend in homelessness over the past 11 years, Gilmore said, including an increase in homeless single adults. Since 2007, there has been an increase of 29 percent — or 75 individuals — in homelessness in our community.