HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Community leaders gathered during a town hall meeting to address the crisis of unhoused people within the City of Huntsville.
This was a public forum where members of the community were able to hear what the city is doing to help those unhoused or unsheltered find permanent housing, but also voice their questions or concerns.
Huntsville's most recent "Point-In-Time" data shows that in 2022 there were at least 536 homeless persons in the city. These numbers are expected to increase for 2023.
Community Development Manager for the City of Huntsville, Scott Erwin, says "as Huntsville has grown, that population has also grown. So our responsibility is to try to figure out what is leading to individuals who are unsheltered. You know, how do we get them along a continuum toward self-sufficiency, permanent housing and ultimately independent living…"
Erwin says their department focuses a lot on affordable or subsidized housing, "we've done about 500 units in the last few years. We have more planned. These units are basically driven by a subsidy and then they are rent restricted and individuals who live there can't exceed certain limits. Those are low income housing tax credits. Don't confuse that with Section 8," Erwin said.
A big goal of the city's community development is to make homeless encampments no longer necessary, available or enabled.
But Emma Steelman, Executive Director of the nonprofit "Love Huntsville" says they've been advocating for the city to provide those within the camps, access to running water and restrooms while the city works to provide housing.
"We're hoping that the people in the camps get to stay protected and don't have their rights violated, because even if we build housing starting today for everybody, it would still be a year or two years before they could get into that. And it's not fair to withhold human rights basics like water from people while they're waiting for the city and the builders to be able to kind of build enough housing for everybody," Steelman said.
Councilmember Jennie Robinson believes the city's approach to serving the homeless has changed a lot in the last couple years, "there are more resources coming into the community from HUD [U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development] and we're using them in very different ways to address root causes. And that's really...what we've got to do. We've got to address root causes of homelessness to help people exit homelessness."