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This research aims to assess the well-being of the community of Oneida County and the City of Utica, using the data on homelessness rates and housing prices. Homelessness statistics indicate poverty rates, housing and healthcare prices, levels of unemployment, and even substance abuse rates. It is essential to properly estimate the levels of local homelessness and understand its reasons, relevant to the specific county or state. More importantly, housing prices and their availability are one of the defining factors of homelessness rates. Besides that, the housing problem also includes the ability of the authorities to provide homeless people with proper shelter. According to all the reasons stated above, there is an acute need to research this matter. Therefore, it is essential to examine this issue with regards to Oneida County to estimate its community’s well-being correctly.
Assessment of Positive Aspects
One clearly distinctive and essential positive aspect of the problem is that Oneida local authorities are providing homeless people with sheltering and strong social programs. The authorities’ ability and will to work on this problem are clearly distinctive. What is more important, the proposed methods prove to be effective. Although it is fair to say that the number of weaknesses prevails over the number of strengths, some significant positive moments can be noted.
Sheltering Levels and Social Programs
Oneida County’s sheltering program is highly developed, according to the amounts of funding and the statistics of sheltered homeless people. Their number prevails over the number of unsheltered ones and continues to grow (National Alliance to End Homelessness, n.d.). It has changed by 15% among with overall 15% growth of the homeless people rates (National Alliance to End Homelessness, n.d.).
For the last three years, the overall number of sheltering sites has been about 800 (Homeless Shelters Directory, n.d.). The New York State’s decrease in the rates of sheltered people, conducted 2%, for the last three years, and the growth of the unsheltered people conducted 15% (National Alliance to End Homelessness, n.d.). Being compared to overall state’s rates, Oneida’s statistic seems much more promising. Although the number of shelters in Oneida is assessed from one to three, it is more than enough to provide a major percentage of homeless people with sheltering (Homeless Shelters Directory, n.d.).
It is essential to mention several local social programs, such as “Sheltered Youth project,” which provides unsheltered youth with temporal accommodation (Agencies we fund, 2021).On October 14, 2021, Oneida County and City of Utica announced collective efforts to address homelessness, offering rehousing programs (Oneida County & City of Utica Announce collaborative efforts to address homelessness, 2020).
Oneida County invested over $350,000 to work on this acute issue (Oneida County & City of Utica Announce collaborative efforts to address homelessness, 2020). From 1983 to 2020, Oneida has received about 27 million dollar funding for different social projects (Homeless Housing and Assistance Program 2020 Annual Report to the Governor and Legislature, 2020). These numbers are quite high, compared to other neighboring counties; for example, Franklin County has received only 10 million dollars for the same period (Homeless Housing and Assistance Program 2020 Annual Report to the Governor and Legislature, 2020). Thus, analyzing the statistics is possible to say that local authorities provide more than enough means of social reintegration and temporal housing to those in need.
Assessment of Negative Aspects
Oneida County and the City of Utica face growing homelessness rates, especially an increase in chronic homelessness, combined with a growth in housing prices. New York state has one of the highest homelessness rates among all other states, second only to California. Even though the mentioned rates have stagnated for the last three years, they still conduct about 91,000 of homeless people, which is about 47 homeless per 10,000 people in the general population (United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, n.d.). Although the problems in the taken county appear to be less severe than in the whole state, Oneida remains under the influence of the global tendency.
Housing Prices
Oneida County’s housing prices have been instantly growing for the last three years. Housing prices compared to overall annuary income define the possibility for a citizen to afford a comfortable living place. Unfortunately, significant growth of housing prices all around the United States is observed, and Oneida is not an exception (Data USA, n.d.). For the last three years, the average housing price has grown by more than 80,000 dollars, conducting 127,700 dollars as of 2019 (Data USA, n.d.). It is fair to mention that the average housing cost is lower than the United States average housing price, which conducts 293,349 dollars (Data USA, n.d.). Average Oneida household income conducted 56,027, compared to 31,133, which is an average income among the United States (Data USA, n.d.). This means the housing is still affordable if compared with the average yearly income of Oneida citizens.
Total Level of Homelessness
It is possible to observe a growth in homelessness rates for the past three years. Even though homelessness rates have stagnated in New York State, the overall trend is directed towards increasing homeless people. Therefore, the county’s 16% homelessness increase correlates with the main trend (National Alliance to End Homelessness, n.d.). Nowadays, the chronic homelessness rate conducts 238%, being 200 times bigger than in the whole state (National Alliance to End Homelessness, n.d.). Oneida may be facing a severe unsolved problem, including that dealing with chronic homelessness can be a highly complex problem. Thus, compared to New York State, the homelessness rate in Oneida has a slightly higher increase than the state’s overall statistics but mainly represents the trend.
Conclusion
Homelessness remains an unsolved problem due to the lack of affordable housing, high addiction rates, and unemployment. Although New York State’s homelessness rates still remain one of the highest in the whole country, Oneida County. Even though the housing price growth is a national trend, which has not surpassed Oneida and Utica, compared to the country’s average, the prices still seem to be quite affordable for citizens. The whole study indicates that the average level of well-being in Oneida proves to be satisfying, and measures taken by the local authorities seem to be more promising and effective than the average state’s statistics. However, Oneida County and Utica City remain under the influence of New York State’s social tendencies.
References
Agencies we fund. (2021). Oneida County. Web.
Data USA (n.d.).Oneida County, NY[Infographic]. Web.
Homeless Housing and Assistance Program 2020 Annual Report to the Governor and Legislature. (2020). New York and US State Department of Housing and Urban Development. Web.
Homeless Shelters Directory (n.d.), Homelessness statistics for Oneida, NY [Infographic]. Web.
National Alliance to End Homelessness (n.d.). SOH: State and CoC dashboards [Infographic]. Web.
Oneida County & City of Utica Announce collaborative efforts to address homelessness (2021). Oneida County. Web.
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (n.d.). Homelessness statistics by state [Infographic]. Web.
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