The Breakdown - homelessness in Houston

We now have the latest stats on how many people Hurricane Harvey put out on our streets. Here’s the breakdown.

Harvey ruined a lot of homes last year. In January, an annual homeless survey was done by The Way Home Houston, which is basically a central hub that coordinates all the local resources available for someone who's homeless.

"Clients get the services they need without having to jump around to multiple agencies,” says Robert Pulster with the U.S. Council on Homelessness.

Today, updated numbers came in. We've seen homelessness drop by half since 2012, but last year shows the first uptick.

On any given night, 4,100 people are homeless, compared to about 3,600 the two years prior. Now, about 1,600 people are counted as unsheltered any given night.

“That puts Houston maybe comparable to Dallas, Miami, Portland, Oregon,” Pulster says.

Of the 500 new unsheltered people, half pointed to Hurricane Harvey. It might have been a lot more had Houstonians not stepped up.

The Way Home hopes to see all these number self-correct, pointing out that a lot of people just needed time to save up enough money for a new down payment or security deposit.

If you need help, or know someone who needs help, you can visit thewayhomehouston.org.