Kailyn Mackey, housing stability coach, at Valley Youth House, left, Dericka Scales, housing supervisor, at Valley Youth House, center and Tom Tuten, outreach worker, at Valley Youth House, walk on a path at Culliton Park in the 200 block of South Water Street in Lancaster city on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025.
Blaine Shahan / LNP | LancasterOnline
Blaine Shahan / LNP | LancasterOnline
Kailyn Mackey, housing stability coach, at Valley Youth House, left, Dericka Scales, housing supervisor, at Valley Youth House, center and Tom Tuten, outreach worker, at Valley Youth House, walk on a path at Culliton Park in the 200 block of South Water Street in Lancaster city on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025.
The number of people living in shelters, cars, and tents are near record highs in Berks, Lancaster and York counties.
Every year in January, federal law requires a one-night count of how many homeless people live in communities across the country. York is the most recent county to release results, counting 546 homeless people, up 19 percent from last year, a 10-year high.
The spike in homelessness mirrors the national trend of more people losing stable housing due to the loss of affordable rents and higher costs of goods, according to Kelly Bletchertas, program coordinator for the York County Coalition on Homelessness. She called the rise in rents and costs a “perfect storm” made worse by a decades-long decline in government support for homelessness.
She says housing insecurity is increasing across the board.
“We’re seeing people that are elderly. We’re seeing fixed income people struggling with rent going up where their fixed incomes are not being increased,” Bletchertas said. “We’re seeing struggles from working individuals, couples, families with children.”
The county has a suite of services and partners for supporting different subgroups in need, such as the elderly or families with children. But the fundamental way to solve homelessness is to create more affordable safe places to live, Bletchertas said.
Often, people who experience homelessness have cycled in and out of housing multiple times, or have been homeless for a long period. This year, Bletchertas and the York Coalition noticed a new trend during their annual count.
“What we’re finding is we have a significant number of people who have not been in this situation before, have not had to seek resources around a loss of housing, and are struggling to navigate how to obtain those resources and how to move back on to permanent housing,” Bletchertas said.
The lack of low-cost housing is creating a “full system backlog,” she said. Shelters are taking longer to move people to permanent housing because it’s hard to find affordable units. That means shelters remain full, which results in more people sleeping outside.
It took years to develop this housing crisis, and it will take years to fix it, Bletchertas said.
Berks and Lancaster counties also reported increases, mirroring the national trend; other Central Pennsylvania counties have not yet released their counts.
As more people feel the pinch of rising costs for housing, food and fuel, it becomes easier for them to understand how a person could become homeless, Bletchertas said. That understanding is helpful because it can lead to more support, she said.
Housing is the number one need, but people can donate time and money to local services helping people without stable housing, Bletchertas said, adding that the needs always exceed the resources available.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
