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Douglas County hears warning on rising street homelessness, HUD funding changes
Summary
Threshold COC told county commissioners unsheltered homelessness has climbed sharply since 2019 and that a recent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding change could make nearly all remaining local HUD dollars subject to national competition; commissioners pressed for local displacement counts and shelter capacity details.
Jason Feldhauser, executive director of Threshold Continuum of Care, told Douglas County commissioners on Dec. 2 that unsheltered homelessness in the Omaha area has risen dramatically since 2019 and that federal funding changes threaten existing supportive-housing programs. "We've seen a really big increase, about 200% increase from 2019 of unsheltered and street homelessness," Feldhauser said during a presentation the board had scheduled twice before.
Feldhauser described local capacity and trends: about 1,250 nightly shelter beds are available plus roughly 300 domestic-violence beds, while an estimated 200 to 300 people remain unsheltered on any given night. He also cited housing-market pressures, saying vacancy rates in the Omaha area are approximately 5.9% and rents have risen “between 21–27%” over the last five years,…
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