‘We could exceed 400 people’: Lincoln shelter overcapacity as US homelessness hits record

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Homelessness is at a record high across the nation, and Nebraska is also seeing an increase.

The People’s City Mission is housing hundreds of people every night.

“We’re very, very concerned about whether we’re going to end up turning people away or not,” said Pastor Tom Barber, the CEO of the mission. “We haven’t had to do that in the mission’s history, but we could be getting to a place where we may have to.”

The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday reported an 18% increase in homelessness this year in the U.S.

“When COVID hit, we had a drop in our numbers a little bit, I think a lot of people did,” Barber said.

But now, the number of people at the mission has returned to — and exceeded — pre-COVID levels.

Barber said there’s an average of 360 to 385 people staying at the mission every night. The shelter was built to house 250.

“We have many guys on the floor, we have families on the floor,” he said.

Barber said the numbers are only going to climb in the coming months.

“It is a lot of people coming in, and the weather’s really not that cold yet,” Barber said. “So we’re a little bit concerned that if it gets really cold, we could exceed 400 people, which would be a record for the mission.”

The first couple months of the year are the times when the mission needs the most help from the community.

Barber said donations are always welcome to help get it through the busiest time of the year.