The report released Monday by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless shows nearly one third of the growing number of homeless people need both shelter, AND mental health support services.
Cuyahoga County's Mental Health Board Director Bill Denihan says many of the people with mental illness in area shelters are recently released prison inmates. And, he says, the problems of assisting all mentally ill homeless people have been exacerbated by funding cuts from Columbus.
DENIHAN:"For the state to cut behavorial health and mental health services at the large number that they've done, they've said that mental health services is not the priority that we think it should be."
Denihan said state cuts topped $5 million this past year, three million of that in last weeks' budget reduction.
Coalition Executive Director Brian Davis says Greater Cleveland needs to appeal to Washington D.C. for increased funding assistance - to address the entire homeless problem.
DAVIS: "The federal government needs to step up and do a lot more to address poverty. We don't have enough money to build housing for the thousands of people who need shelter every night, so we really have to have the federal government do more to address this problem."
Among other figures in the report was an increase in families who need shelter, which climbed by about 50% in Cuyahoga County.
Rick Jackson,
90.3.
