As More Than 350 Cities Criminalize Sleeping Outside, Durham Prioritizes Real-Time Data, Rapid Housing and Upstream Prevention
Unsheltered homelessness has become a growing issue for many cities across the U.S., and that has caused one city to take a decidedly different approach to addressing the problem.
Durham, North Carolina, has seen its unsheltered homeless population grow by a massive 300% between 2018 and 2024, according to the Urban Ministries of Durham. There were more than 1,600 people who were homeless in the city as of May 31, 2026, including about 600 living unsheltered. The number of people living unsheltered has increased by about 25% year over year, according to local data.
The growth of homelessness has caused headaches for people who are homeless and the surrounding community alike. For instance, police officers have conducted multiple sweeps in local parks, only for the disrupted encampments to return. Meanwhile, people who are homeless say they have had personal items like clothes and sentimental items trashed during the sweeps.
Those issues appear to have inspired Durham officials to take a new approach to addressing homelessness. The city recently adopted a new strategic plan aimed at ending homelessness in Bull City by 2031. It includes:
- Moving away from a snapshot count of homelessness to a real-time, shared data set that tracks every individual experiencing homelessness
- Creating a 30-day timeline for getting a person who is homeless into housing
- Ensuring housing and services are available before disrupting an encampment
- Creating upstream prevention through partnerships with healthcare systems, schools, jails, and intervening before someone loses their home entirely
“In Durham, we don’t want to treat this as a nuisance to be managed,” Durham Mayor Leo Williams said during his recent State of the City address. “We want to treat it as a human issue, because that’s exactly what it is.”
The Housing Crisis Making It Harder
The new strategic plan was adopted at a critical time in North Carolina, as rising housing costs threaten the housing stability of many low-income families across the state. According to data from Redfin, the median home price in Durham has increased by 16% to more than $424,000 since the pandemic began. At that price point, a single individual would need to earn between $100,000 and $120,000 to avoid paying more than 30% of their income on a mortgage and utilities, otherwise known as being “housing burdened.”
Meanwhile, the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that 76% of renters across North Carolina who earn low incomes are considered rent-burdened. The state also has a shortage of around 215,000 homes affordable to people with extremely low incomes, typically under $25,000 a year.
State lawmakers are also seeking to preempt how municipalities like Durham address homelessness. Lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly are debating a bill that would ban homeless encampments outside of city-sanctioned properties.
Cities could allow encampments to stay in certain areas for up to a year when indoor shelters don’t have enough space, according to the bill. Local governments would also be required to provide sanitation and restroom facilities for the encampments. At the same time, cities that do not remove encampments can be held civilly liable. Critics have said the bill amounts to criminalizing homelessness, even though that exact language doesn’t exist in the bill.
“This is a dangerous bill that is targeting the most vulnerable North Carolinians,” Samuel Gunter, executive director of the N.C. Housing Coalition told the Asheville Citizen-Times. “Rather than focusing our energy and resources on solutions to unsheltered homelessness, this bill criminalizes the crisis and adds more legal and financial pressures to local communities and governments.”
What Sweeps Actually Do to People
Some critics also worry that the bill could make current sweeps worse for people who are homeless. One homeless woman recently explained how difficult those situations can be.
“I’m homeless, I don’t have that much,” Stephanie Worthham, who had stayed at Oakwood Park for multiple months before a sweep occurred, told the Charlotte News & Observer. “I do know how to go to the library and into certain places and give myself a bath, but do I also have to lose my belongings, the things I do have? I don’t. I don’t have to. That’s bullcrap.”
To address some of these concerns, Durham is piloting a one-year day shelter where people who are homeless can access the internet, wash their clothes, and connect with case management or other services. The shelter will be the first of its kind in Durham, Indy Week reported.
“This is a moment in time when a lot of different things are coming together in a really good way in Durham, in terms of addressing and strengthening our [homelessness services] system,” Wendy Jacobs, a Durham County commissioner, told the outlet.
Why Durham’s Approach Is Different
While Durham’s strategic plan seems similar to other homeless initiatives, it combines several best practices that illustrate what it takes to make homelessness brief and non-reoccurring. The plan combines connecting people with housing and services while minimizing displacement, all of which can strengthen the relationships an individual needs to leave homelessness behind once and for all.
It also bucks the growing trend of criminalizing homelessness without providing support for people who don’t have homes.
Since the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Grants Pass v. Johnson in 2024, more than 350 cities have enacted new laws criminalizing aspects of homelessness, like creating temporary shelters or sleeping in public. These laws are not only inhumane, but they are also counterproductive. Homelessness ends when people have a home and a community to support them, not when the police force them to leave town.
What You Can Do
Nationwide, anti-homeless laws are gaining ground in legislative committees, fueled by hidden votes, corporate backing, out-of-state lobbyists, and conservative think tanks like the Cicero Institute. We’re fighting a crucial battle against misinformation and the criminalization of homelessness.
The pandemic underscored the urgent need to overhaul housing policies in the United States, revealing that many homelessness initiatives rely too heavily on law enforcement rather than social services.
Stand with our vulnerable neighbors and urge your representatives to take meaningful action to address homelessness. As the first step toward ending homelessness, we must prioritize compassionate solutions over punitive measures.
