Montgomery Co. Survey Shows Increase In People Experiencing Homelessness In 2023

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — The number of people experiencing homelessness in Montgomery County jumped by 54 percent in 2023, the largest increase of any jurisdiction in the inner suburbs of Washington, D.C., according to a new survey.

Montgomery County’s survey of homelessness, conducted on the night of Jan. 25, counted 894 adults and children experiencing homelessness, up from 581 people found to be experiencing homelessness in the county around the same time in 2022.

The count of people experiencing homelessness in January was the third year that the annual survey was conducted since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

"When the pandemic first began in early 2020, it was estimated that homelessness nationally would increase by 40 percent, and we are clearly seeing that in our community," Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said in a statement.

Elrich explained that many factors that have contributed to the increase.

“While we are seeing an increase in homelessness in the community, I am proud that we were able to expand our ability to provide temporary shelter to the homeless by opening the new Nebel Street Shelter during the pandemic,” Elrich said. "Shelters are a necessary and important part of our continuum of services."

In the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ new 2023 Point-in-Time survey report, all nine jurisdictions in the metropolitan D.C. area included in the survey recorded an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness when compared to the 2022 count.

In the outer D.C. suburbs, Loudoun County reported a 122-percent increase in the number of people experiencing homeless, rising from 99 people in 2022 to 220 people in 2023. Loudoun County saw the largest year-over-year increase, followed by Montgomery County, among the nine D.C. area jurisdictions.

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The COG’s Point-in-Time survey of people experiencing homelessness is part of an annual regional analysis and report that started in 2001. Montgomery County’s survey counted 611 adult-only households and 85 families with minor children.

As part of the effort to help find permanent housing, Montgomery County’s Continuum of Care was able to help 395 adult-only households and 106 households with children leave homelessness in 2022.

The Continuum of Care, led by Montgomery County’s Department of Health and Human Services, is a public-private partnership that includes state and local government agencies, nonprofit service providers, landlords and others who can play a role in preventing and ending homelessness.

"Across the region, we've seen rates of homelessness increase, and unfortunately, Montgomery County is not immune," Montgomery County Council President Evan Glass said in a statement.

While Montgomery County has made strides in offering support and services for people experiencing homelessness, “we must continue working to make the experience of homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring,” he said.

According to the COG report, certain programs unique to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as eviction moratoriums and the provision of emergency housing assistance, reduced the number of people who entered the homeless services system as well as quickly assisted people whose incidences of homelessness could not be prevented into stable housing.

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But the end of the eviction moratoriums and exhausted emergency rental and utility assistance funding has had an impact on the number of people whose housing crisis resulted in an experience of homelessness, according to the COG.

Data collected in 2023 confirms that one of the ongoing barriers to ending homelessness, according to the COG, is the insufficient number of affordable and available permanent housing opportunities for the lowest-income households.

Montgomery County recently received nearly $5 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of its Continuum of Care program.

In 2022, Montgomery County’s Continuum of Care served 1,775 households through emergency shelter, transitional housing and outreach. On the night of the count, the Continuum of Care was providing 2,906 beds in permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing and other permanent housing options, a 14 percent increase over 2021.

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