The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2012 assessment of homelessness in cities and states across the country found a slight dip in Milwaukee County versus 2011, and a slight increase in Wisconsin’s statewide numbers.
The agency’s “point in time” survey, conducted every year on a day in January, found 1,432 homeless people living in Milwaukee County (about 0.15 percent of the population), down from 1,466 in 2011.
Statewide, homelessness rose about 4 percent, according to HUD.
To put these numbers in context, we dug deeper into HUD’s data, which divides the homeless into categories. In Milwaukee County (see below), the numbers of people deemed to be chronically homeless or chronic substance abusers have fallen in recent years as those of domestic violence victims and the severely mentally ill have tended to increase.
The number of homeless people in Milwaukee classified as “victims of domestic violence” has more than tripled since 2007.
