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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, pushing more people toward homelessness.
The presentation highlighted a change in HUD funding rules that Feldhauser said reduces the portion of formula funds guaranteed to the community. He said Douglas County previously received about $7.1 million of secured HUD funding and that, under a new notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), only about $2 million would be guaranteed locally while roughly $7.6 million would be placed in a national competition. "We are currently actively in a competition right now," he told commissioners, and warned that only 30% of the competitive funds may be available for permanent supportive housing in the future.
To address street homelessness, Threshold and the City of Omaha launched an encampment pilot on Nov.1 that uses a 10-day notice process and daily outreach. Feldhauser said outreach teams visit encampments throughout the notice period, secure valuables, provide storage through a partnership with Siena Francis, and try to move people into shelter or other housing options. He reported that most encampments vacated before the 10-day mark and that the pilot has not required police removals in closed sites so far.
Feldhauser urged investment in targeted strategies, including a local adaptation of FUSE (frequent users systems engagement) to identify a small cohort of people who cycle through emergency rooms, corrections and homeless services and provide them with permanent housing and wraparound supports. He said Threshold is working with Douglas County corrections on data-sharing and expects a report linking corrections encounters to homeless-system usage later this month.
Commissioners asked for verification of the HUD figures, the number of people displaced by encampment closures, and the number of unsheltered individuals counted in recent point-in-time efforts. Feldhauser said PIT (point-in-time) counts for 2024 are available and that outreach teams are compiling updated displacement numbers to provide to the board.
Public commenters described neighborhood-level impacts and urged stronger city–county coordination on development and affordable-housing funding. Commissioner follow-ups will focus on the displacement tally, shelter capacity and the county’s role in funding supportive housing as HUD rules change.
The presentation is an informational briefing; no formal policy was adopted at the meeting. Threshold and county staff said they will share the encampment displacement numbers and other requested metrics with the board in the near term.
