{"id":3457,"date":"2026-11-07T18:41:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T18:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theredwing.news\/index.php\/2026\/11\/07\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T16:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T16:20:23","slug":"opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theredwing.news\/index.php\/2026\/11\/07\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | A lower homelessness count should prompt a closer look at what works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HUD\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hud.gov\/news\/hud-no-26-090\">latest release<\/a> put the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January at 698,425. The agency reported a decline from the prior year. That is welcome news, but a one-night count cannot tell taxpayers which programs made the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Local governments should report how many people move into stable housing, how many return to shelters, and whether people who need treatment can actually get it. A city can clear an encampment and still have people sleeping outdoors a few blocks away. It can also place someone in housing without addressing why that person keeps losing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conservative case for accountability starts with those outcomes. Fund programs that can show people are better off months later, and ask harder questions of programs that measure success by how much they spend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HUD\u2019s latest release put the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January at 698,425. The agency reported a decline from the prior year. That is welcome news, but a one-night count cannot tell taxpayers which programs made the difference. Local governments should report how many people move into stable housing, how [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,27,47,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-conservative-values","category-opinions","category-poverty-homelessness","category-social-issues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Opinion | A lower homelessness count should prompt a closer look at what works - The Red Wing News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theredwing.news\/index.php\/2026\/11\/07\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion | A lower homelessness count should prompt a closer look at what works\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"HUD\u2019s latest release put the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January at 698,425. The agency reported a decline from the prior year. That is welcome news, but a one-night count cannot tell taxpayers which programs made the difference. Local governments should report how many people move into stable housing, how [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theredwing.news\/index.php\/2026\/11\/07\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Red Wing News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/groups\/theredwingnews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-07T18:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-11-11T16:20:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theredwing.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/HOUSING-RESULTS-cover.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1344\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Red Wing News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheRedWingNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheRedWingNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Red Wing News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.theredwing.news\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/07\\\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.theredwing.news\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/07\\\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Red Wing News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.theredwing.news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f1431502e26f87ea3e86125bb8f806a6\"},\"headline\":\"Opinion | A lower homelessness count should prompt a closer look at what works\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-07T18:41:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-11-11T16:20:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.theredwing.news\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/07\\\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":147,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.theredwing.news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.theredwing.news\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/07\\\/opinion-homelessness-count-measure-housing-results\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.theredwing.news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/opinions-cover-3457-scaled.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Conservative Values\",\"Opinions\",\"Poverty &amp; 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