well it's a tough number to pinpoint but the latest count from the state's office of homelessness prevention finds New Jersey is making St strides toward lowering the number of people without a place to call home data out today shows a double-digit drop in residents who are homeless and unsheltered while revealing the biggest factors contributing to how people end up on the streets and it's probably not what you'd think Ted Goldberg reports New Jersey's Department of Community Affairs says there's been a 23% drop in the number of people Statewide experiencing unsheltered homelessness using data from point in time counts and other state data leaders say New Jersey's unsheltered homeless population has dropped from about 10,000 people to about 7600 people from October of 2022 to this past October we are within a confidence interval right of counting but particularly what the limiting factors there are would I say it's high confidence definitely would I say it's 100% confident right we're working towards getting there Michael Callahan is the director of the office of homelessness prevention he says leaders are learning more about what causes homelessness so they have a better idea of reducing it the dca's new report says the most common cause of unsheltered homelessness is being asked to leave a shared residence that accounts for 26% of people Statewide who experienced homelessness in the past year Callahan says being evicted is the second most common way new jerseyans face homelessness and it's more common than substance abuse it's not being diagnosed with serious mental illness it's not because you're struggling with addiction right it's because you're a normal person struggling right with the realities of our economy leaders acknowledge that there's also a 13% increase in sheltered homelessness which still adds up to a drop in people experiencing homelessness overall they spoke at Homefront in Lawrenceville today one of New Jersey's organizations helping families experiencing homelessness or right on the cusp of it over 450 families a month are calling us for that help with critical help from DCA and other partners we're able to intervene quickly we're really proud of that 105,106 New Jersey's program helping people who are facing eviction emphasizing that keeping someone in a home is less expensive for the state than housing them in a shelter for less than $670 on average of cost per household right 97% of the families in this program never enter shelter right onethird of them stabilize using their own funds and and income and all they need was rapid CA rapid intensive case management while leaders shared good news they say there's much more that can be done while we are here today because of the efforts of the office of homeless Miss prevention and its Partners in New Jersey have made strides there is still much work for us all to do we are seeing unsheltered people sleeping in Office Buildings and full Pantry besides encampment communities in abandoned CH Parks we have people who are in a major crisis and we say well I hope you have a big box full of documents you know and I hope they're all up to date and all correct and you know that also that we don't lose them let's fun people so that they can help people get these things they can help you know that woman with dementia who doesn't remember where she was born but we're demanding a birth from her in lawrencville I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News [Music]