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The population of homeless in Chautauqua County didn't explode last year like it did in the last two-year study by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office.
That first study of homelessness put a number to the increase (103% from January 2022 through January 2024) in homelessness we had been seeing all around us. The increase is a lot less in 2025 than it was in 2024 – 23.7% year-over-year. That's the good news, if one can call it that.
The bad news is that homelessness across the state decreased by 7.9% over the same time period, though that decrease was largely driven by New York City. In 17 of 25 regions known as Continuums of Care (CoCs), homelessness grew. In 11 regions, it grew by more than 10%, with the highest increases in Columbia and Greene counties, Troy/Rensselaer County and Schenectady. Homelessness in the Buffalo area increased by about 14% from 2024 to 2025.
What's heartbreaking news is that 38.1% of Chautauqua County's homeless are children under the age of 18. Data from COI’s youth programs indicate that youth become homeless primarily because they are asked to leave the home by a parent or caregiver (51.2%), but substantial numbers are homeless because they cannot find a job (24.7%), they experienced physical abuse (23.8%), or their caretaker engages in substance abuse (22.6%). This data has remained consistent over the past several years.
There is work ongoing at the state and local levels to bring more affordable housing into Chautauqua County, but we know cheaper housing is only part of the reason homelessness is such a stubborn problem. Substance abuse and mental health issues are also behind some of the pictures of homelessness we see around us, and for many a local economy that leaves many living paycheck to paycheck leaves working families on the brink of homelessness each month.
The region's homeless population may not be as in your face as it was a couple of summers ago when they were stationed in Brooklyn Square, but they're still here – and far too many are still children. Consider DiNapoli's study confirmation that we aren't even close to closing the book on the county's homelessness crisis.