Duluth's homeless population continues to increase

• Homeless

Jose Solis, who’s been homeless and living in the woods in West Duluth near the freeway, rolls a cigarette as he sits by his campfire Thursday afternoon. He cooks his own food, recycles cans, listens to public radio and walks into town when he needs something. (Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com)

Talk about it

There is a perception in Duluth that homelessness is declining in the community, CHUM Executive Director Jim Soderberg said Thursday.

But 2011 numbers CHUM released Thursday tell a different story. The number of individuals seeking overnight shelter through CHUM has grown 64 percent over the past 10 years, including a 4 percent increase last year.

“There were 932 people in emergency shelter last year,” Soderberg said during a morning news conference. “This is not a problem we are on top of.”

The news conference took place on the busiest day of an effort to count Duluth’s homeless. Money for programs to help the homeless is pegged to the numbers who are found. Later in the day, CHUM outreach worker Deb Holman visited Jose Solis in his camp in one of the area’s forests. Solis said he was working regularly until he broke his back in an ATV accident seven years ago.

“Since then it’s been downhill,” he said, sitting outside of his tent and near a small fire.

He tried to continue working, but it became too difficult. For a while he lived in a boarding house, until he became tired of becoming fat and lazy.

“I decided to go into the woods and rough it,” he said.

He voluntarily moved to the woods and became homeless in March. He survives on about $400 a month in General Assistance and Food Stamps.

“This is homeless, but I do like it here, except when it is cold,” he said.

When it becomes too cold Solis seeks shelter at CHUM.

While he likes it in the woods, Solis doesn’t plan on remaining homeless. He is trying to get housing through the Human Development Center’s Shelter Plus Care program.

“They are trying to get me a home, but it’s a long list,” he said.

Holman tries to meet the homeless, gain their trust, make sure they are safe and, when they are ready, work to find them housing.

While it may be a week before a final tally is compiled, Holman estimates the final number probably will be about the 118 people sleeping outside of shelters found last year. But she estimates that number understates the problem by at least 50 people. Last summer, she saw more homeless living in camps around Duluth than she had in the past six years.

Soderberg said it’s not just unemployed people like Solis seeking shelter. A growing number of families are homeless, too.

The number of families CHUM helped between June and December last year was at an all-time high: an average of 13 families a month. That was

45 percent higher than the numbers served in 2007. And families are spending more time in emergency shelter — an average of 46 days last year compared to 35 days in 2007.

“The most disconcerting is the increase in the number of families with very small children who are seeking emergency shelter,” Soderberg said.

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