As home and rental prices skyrocket ever forward with staggering wages and rising inflation, homelessness is becoming an even more pressing issue. Additionally, food pantries and community partners are struggling to keep up with the increased demand for services and are noticing ever-growing needs from our most vulnerable population.
Dayton’s struggle with housing started in the Jim Crow era when neighborhoods faced segregation and Black populations were pushed further and further into the West Side, now an area filled with decrepit proprieties, stagnant businesses and violent crime. Community activists say this is due to a lack of regional investment.
Since the 2008 market crash and, more recently, the 2020 global COVID pandemic, the whole Dayton area has struggled with economic development, net-out migration, and the closure of factories, hospitals and businesses, causing a Dayton housing and poverty crisis.
There has been work from both city government and nonprofit organizations to address these issues.
The City has already allocated over 21 million of the around $55.7 million of the Dayton Recovery Plan to improve local neighborhoods and tear down vacant properties to make way for new ones. The City has also allocated $5.8 million to companies like onMain to build residential properties and thousands more to local nonprofits like Daybreak and St. Vincent to aid in homeless relief.
The community will not see the results of this investment for many months, if not years, leaving the question of what the City will do to aid the homeless crisis in the meantime. And are these investments too little, too late?
In 2024, 50 people, including a 14-day-old child, passed away due to homelessness in Montgomery County. Despite funding from the City, St. Vincent de Paul recently announced that it would stop operating the Gateway Homeless Shelter for men starting June 2025.
Every day, a person, a family, or a child enters into homelessness. On some of those days, those people die on the streets or in a shelter. Long-term investment into this situation is a significant first step.
In the meantime, we need to ensure that there are enough warming centers in our community, that there are adequate resources for our shelters and that community partners have safe, legal ways of distributing food and aid to those in need. Immediate action is required from our government to address the current situation to prevent further casualties in 2025.
James Mae is a local freelance journalist focusing on Dayton and social issues.
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