As reported on TBD.com and in the Silver Spring Patch:

The number of people living on the streets, in their cars and in shelters has jumped nearly 27 percent in Maryland, a national group that studies homelessness trends reports.

Maryland is one of 31 states that saw an increase in its homeless population between 2008 and 2009…

According to the above-cited State of Homelessness in America 2011, a comprehensive study conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the “homeless population increased by about 20,000 people, or 3 percent” in those years. As quoted in the Patch, Lois Mikkila of the Howard County Department of Citizen Services asks:

“In a county like ours that has so much, is it acceptable to have 221 people who are homeless? … We need to highlight the fact that homelessness exists here.”

In Howard County, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, homeless people tend to be “invisible,” Mikkila said. They live in tents in the woods or sleep in cars, not on the streets as many homeless in major cities do, she said.

To take Mikkila’s point a step further: not only must we must render homelessness more “visible,” but also acknowledge that its causes and manifestations vary from place to place, from large city to more sprawling suburb — and so too do the steps necessary to combat it. For example: “in 2009, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties documented 1,194 and 853 people respectively; in 2010, the numbers dropped to 1,064 and 789.” However, applications for Medicaid and food stamps have increased in number in those same places, as have “the number of homeless families in Montgomery County with children.”

Catalogue non-profits do such critical work towards decreasing both homelessness and its root causes because they focus acutely on individuals and specific communities. In large, diverse, and complex urbanized areas (or suburban cities), such as Silver Spring, that individualized approach perhaps makes the greatest difference in the campaign to eliminate homelessness — additionally, the resources to support that approach are unquestionably present. So this week, be sure to learn more about our housing-focused charities and their personal stories.