New HUD report shows us that homeless population locally, statewide, growing

The 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released last week tells us that 745,652 people were homeless on the night of the Point-In-Time Count in the final week of January 2025.

It takes HUD 17 months to process this information, which means it’s already old by the time we get to digest it.

At least this number was down 3.3 percent from 2024.

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ICYMI: Homelessness in Waynesboro, Staunton, Augusta County

• Waynesboro not a big city like Washington, but homelessness issues still exist
• At risk? Tree Streets couple want homeless out of their Waynesboro neighborhood
• Cold-weather shelter braces for significant increase in homeless residents seeking warmth

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I think we can rightly fear that the number for that one night in the final week of January 2026 would have gone up from 2025, with the draconian cuts to the social-safety net from the Trump regime and its MAGA enablers in Congress, and that it could very well go up again on the one night in the final week of January 2027, with those cuts continuing, and the economy crumbling, due to the continued impact of the war in Iran.

I have digressed.

Point is, the numbers were down 3.3 percent from 2024 to 2025, but 745,652 is still a lot of homeless people.

Virginia had 7,240 people who were homeless on that night in January 2025 used for counting; that was actually up 1.4 percent from 2024.

The number for Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County: 144.

And that number comes with a cautionary note from Brian Edwards, the chair of the Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry, a nonprofit that provides resources for our local homeless population.

“While the Point-In-Time Count is a valuable resource for WARM to help allocate our resources more efficiently, the actual number of those living in homelessness is nearly impossible to calculate,” Edwards said. “Several nights during the cold weather shelter season, there were 45 to 50 unsheltered neighbors that stayed with us. Added to 10 to 12 staying at Ruth’s House, that puts our total number in our care about 20 more than were counted during the Point-In-Time Count.”

Ensuring that WARM has enough funding to operate the entire 18-week cold weather shelter season is also difficult to know, Edwards said, but the federal report does offer the nonprofit some good data to prepare.

“Since WARM receives a negligible amount of government funding and over 99% of its annual operating budget from the giving of individuals, businesses, philanthropic organizations, and churches, WARM board members have the data needed to support the claim that homelessness is here and increasing,” Edwards said.