City and council now have data to generate humane solutions to homeless crisis

City Council members Russ Jehl and Dr. Scott Meyers weren’t wrong to raise the question of homelessness in Fort Wayne. But their initial call for action was clumsy. Their letter to Mayor Sharon Tucker’s administration read as if the public hadn’t already noticed the growing number of unhoused people downtown. Still, they forced the issue onto the table.

Amanda Fall, the city’s community development manager for homeless services, responded last week with something Fort Wayne has lacked for more than a decade: credible data. In her presentation to City Council, Fall estimated about 2,250 people in Fort Wayne are without housing. That figure dwarfs the 417 counted in the most recent federally required “point-in-time” survey, which city officials acknowledge captures only a fraction of realit