Butler County officials say emergency shelter services are up over the past year, and more money is needed to help fund the program.
At the county commissioner meeting this week, human services officials requested moving nearly a half million dollars from Homelessness Prevention into Emergency Shelter services.
County officials say there are a couple of reasons why they believe the increase in services are happening. One being the ongoing eviction moratorium, which has resulted in more people staying inside their homes. They say that’s decreased available homes for some people.
COVID housing capacity restrictions have also caused human services to seek out more locations in order to house more people. Currently, human services uses the Super 8 Motel if other emergency shelters are past capacity.
Officials also noted that the funds are not entirely necessary for the Homelessness Prevention program because of the eviction moratorium, so those funds haven’t been utilized as much.
