A local annual count of homeless people in Cherokee County found a record-high number this year, and the Cherokee County Homeless Veterans Program (CCHVP) - a subunit of American Legion Post 45 - and other veteran volunteers who conducted the count found nearly 500 homeless people in Cherokee County alone, CCHVP Director Jim Lindenmayer said. "That’s the highest I’ve ever seen in the 10 years I’ve been doing this,” he added. “Two years ago, during the unsheltered count, we encountered less than a hundred.”
Lindenmayer said this year’s count focused on unsheltered homeless, as there are no permanent homeless shelters in Cherokee County. “In all, we found over 40 homeless veterans and over 450 civilians in Cherokee County alone,” he said. “We found many homeless camps that had over 25 people each, and the largest was 31. We also encountered many homeless who had self-confessed mental health issues.”
In discussions with volunteers, the homeless people who were counted shared many different circumstances that led to their situation, Lindenmayer said. One man has been homeless for 11 years after he was not able to cope with the loss of his wife. Another man has been homeless for nine years after he was released from prison. One homeless person recently lost their job and was evicted from their apartment, and a husband and wife were found living in a car due to excessive medical bills. One person was a veteran who has been homeless for over 10 years and is dealing with a mental health issue, Lindenmayer said.
Since the count, we have been working with the veterans we found, getting them temporary housing in motels, helping them from being evicted, or helping them with food, clothing and VA claims. Not all of the veterans we counted could be helped by our program, as we found four veterans who have either less-than-honorable or bad conduct discharges that prevent us from helping due to their discharge type.
From a veteran perspective, Lindenmayer said the count impacts Georgia's ability to receive SSVF federal housing grants. “Last year in July, we ran out of SSVF funding because no one is doing the count — only 37 counties in 2024 participated in doing the count. There are 159 counties in the state. Our team this year did four counties. We rely on funding, and we want to make sure we are getting as many veterans counted as possible so we don’t run out of funding and can't help them,” he said.