More people are seeking help from homeless shelters in Michigan — and they're needing that help for longer periods of time, according to advocates.
Sarah Rennie is an attorney with the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness. She said it's largely because Michigan households are finding it hard to adapt to a worsening economy.
"Forty percent are living paycheck to paycheck," she said. "At the same time, we are short over 200,000 units of affordable housing, and wages are stagnant while there's inflation. So what you're seeing is more people becoming homeless. At the same time, folks who have had chronic issues with homelessness, staying longer and having less pathways to self-sufficiency and success."
Chris Hicks, the executive director of supportive housing and homeless services at the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, said his organization is seeing the same issues.
"In comparing yearly data for our Night Center, it went from about 32% utilization [in 2024-25] to about 88% utilization [in 2025-26]," Hicks said in an email to Michigan Public. "However, the data does not show more unique people requesting shelter. Meaning people are staying in shelter longer because of the lack of opportunity to move towards self sufficiency."
Rennie said organizations that run homeless shelters also have programs to try to move people into permanent housing, but federal funding changes could make that harder to do.
The Trump administration wants to make cuts to homeless funding, while shifting more of what remains from "housing first" permanent housing programs, to addiction and mental health treatment for people who are homeless.
That would include grants to states to involuntarily commit some homeless people to mental health hospitals.
