The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, using the resources of local agencies, conducted its annual count of the homeless on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
HUD uses the data to determine the effectiveness of local agencies that receive HUD funding to address homelessness. It also produces an annual Homeless Assessment Report that is provided to Congress.
In Cape May County on Jan. 23, 2024, the homeless count was 208. Of those, 20% were children under the age of 18 and 18% were adults over the age of 55.
There were similar numbers for 2023, when the count was 198 homeless, with 19% children and 20% adults over 55. In 2022 the count was much lower at 119, but there was also the distorting impact of the pandemic.
In January 2020, months before the first Covid-19 case surfaced in the county, the count was 108, a full hundred people fewer than in January 2024. The trend of the counts suggests that homelessness is growing in the county.
Many advocates for the homeless argue that the counts are significant undercounts likely to miss a number of people experiencing homelessness, due to the limitations of a single-night count and the challenges of finding individuals in hidden situations. What the count does do is give a comparative year-to-year picture of homelessness based on a similar annual count methodology regardless of its flaws.
In 2025 Monarch Associates, the firm that organizes and leads the count, expects another increase. Project leader Kasey Vienckowski said, “We know we have an affordable housing crisis.”
The reports about the January counts are generally released in the summer.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
