New laws for the homeless population

SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY- As the homeless population across the commonwealth continues to rise, new laws are being added that could help benefit the economy but not always the homeless.

Every year on Jan. 31, there is a “point and time count” required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Development. The count organizes the number of homeless people in the state of Kentucky. Based on this count, they discovered that since 2021, the number of homeless people has increased.

Adrienne Bush, the executive director of the Homeless and Unhoused Coalition of Kentucky, tells us one of the many reasons for homelessness is the economic growth that does not always account for the homeless population.

Bush says, “Now that the federal pandemic program has been spent down other protections that we had in place have expired, all the while rents are increasing and double-digit percentages year over year. It feels like we’ve just you know, we are hitting the perfect storm.”

The effects the economy and new laws has on homelessness is not an easy fix.