When Pontiac resident Niyah Stanley went to stay in a homeless shelter in April 2024, it was her last resort after finding temporary living spaces in a family member's home, in hotels, and in her car. Stanley lost her job in October 2023, forcing her and her two children to move because she had no money to continue her lease at the time. They stayed first with Stanley's grandmother, but they couldn't stay long, so Stanley resorted to hotel rooms as a short-term housing solution. When she couldn't pay for hotels anymore, she stayed in her car.
Stanley's experience with homelessness is not uncommon. While homelessness is often thought of as sleeping either on the street or in a shelter – defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as Category 1 homelessness – it takes many other forms. HUD defines imminent risk of homelessness – meaning that a person will lose their nighttime residence within 14 days – as Category 2 homelessness. Stanley fit the definition of Category 2 homelessness while staying with family and in hotels. While she technically had a roof over her head, she and her family were still in unsustainable housing situations.
"I do believe strongly that people do need to consider that Category 2 homelessness is homelessness still," says Stanley, who found permanent housing in July 2024 through the Troy-based nonprofit
Community Housing Network (CHN). "Basically, you still don't have your own [home], and you're still depending on somebody else to put a roof over your head, so it's not like you're really on your own. You're still homeless."
People experiencing Category 2 homelessness are often less visible than those living on the street or in shelters, but Category 2 homelessness is a surprisingly common experience. From October 2024 to March 2025 (the most recent period for which data are available), 385 households called CHN, Oakland County's state-designated Housing Assessment and Resource Agency, to report experiencing Category 1 homelessness. Almost double that amount, 747 households, reported experiencing Category 2 homelessness in the same period.
Leah McCall, executive director of the Pontiac-based nonprofit
Alliance for Housing, says a lack of funding to support those experiencing Category 2 homelessness makes their road back to housing security especially challenging. Organizations like hers must support those with the highest needs, such as those facing an immediate eviction notice, first.
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Leah McCallLeah McCall.
"If we were to assist with all the eviction needs, we would be able to move to assist those doubled up [in housing or] paying for their own hotel, but we don’t even have enough funds to help with all evictions," McCall says.
Many individuals facing homelessness or housing insecurity don't fit the formal definitions of Category 1 or Category 2 homelessness, making it extra difficult for them to obtain supportive services. McCall says her organization has sought funding for additional staff and capacity to gather more information on those people and their needs.
"I believe we first need to use data to better understand the number of individuals and families who are in this situation," she says.
"It's either this camper or a shelter"
When Pontiac resident Shariki Bell experienced homelessness from 2006 to 2012, she was among those who don't quite fit the definition of either Category 1 or Category 2 homelessness. She was technically living in a place fit for human habitation, and she was never at risk of losing her living space. But that living space was a camper parked in the driveway at her friend's house. Electricity came from an extension cord that her friend ran out the window, but only for part of Bell's stay.
"It was like, 'Okay, it's either this camper or a shelter,'" Bell says.
Prior to her period of homelessness, Bell had been living in Northville and working as a server. But she was dealing with mental illness, since diagnosed as bipolar disorder, that she didn't understand at the time. Bell says "issue after issue after issue" piled up. She was struggling in her relationship, and doing her best to raise her son Calvin, who is now 23. She says she hit "rock bottom" when she lost her jobs and was evicted from her housing, which only further exacerbated her already fragile mental health.
"I was ... trying to really maintain, and it just seemed like nothing was working out," she says. "It was like I was spinning my gears, but nothing was moving. So all of a sudden, ... one day, it was just like I had no energy to do nothing but to sulk."
Bell sought out medication for her disorder, but at first the medication only worsened her lethargy. She says she found work over her six years of homelessness, but only "on and off."
"Literally, I had no energy," she says. "And I couldn't even figure out: Where did all that energy go? Where did it go? Where was that vibrant person that I was?"
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Steve KossShariki Bell in her apartment in Pontiac.
When Bell's friend stopped running electricity out to the camper, Bell says she realized it was "time to really buckle down." But it still took her two years to find subsidized housing. She eventually found help through South Oakland Shelter, now known as
Lighthouse. The organization initially covered the full cost of an apartment in Pontiac for Bell, and she now pays a fixed percentage of her income for rent. She says her "dignity was restored" at Lighthouse, and getting stable housing has allowed her to stabilize her mental health, work, and even volunteer at Lighthouse. But she describes her period of homelessness as a "dead end" during which few people understood the magnitude of the challenges she faced.
"I was feeling really down, feeling hopeless, feeling depressed," Bell says. "It was like being in a prison in your own body."
"As long as I was sleeping on his porch, I was homeless"
Pontiac resident Janice Blessett's experience with homelessness in 2022 led her to an even more uncomfortable living situation than Bell's: sleeping on a pallet bed she'd made up on her brother's front porch as Michigan winter took hold. Blessett, 43, and three of her kids had been living with her sister, brother-in-law, and their kids. But Blessett's brother-in-law got COVID-19 and then double pneumonia, leading to him losing his job and the housing they'd all shared.
Blessett, who is on Social Security Disability Insurance, experienced homelessness for six months. She says it was hard to stay in shelters at the time because they were full due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. She and three of her children, then aged 5, 6, and 8, moved in with her brother. The children stayed in the house, but Blessett stayed outside – partly due to limited space, and partly because she wouldn't be considered homeless and eligible for services if she slept in the house.
"As long as I was staying in the house with my brother, they weren't going to declare me homeless," she says. "But as long as I was sleeping on his porch, I was homeless."
CHN eventually referred Blessett to Lighthouse's Permanent Housing Stability program, which provides both housing and case management for clients with long-term disabilities. She says getting housed again has allowed her to participate in her kids' schooling and better plan meals for them, as opposed to when she only had enough money to buy food for a day at a time. Although she was able to be close to family while experiencing homelessness, she says those six months were still extremely difficult.
"I was severely depressed," she says. "It just wasn't a good time for me emotionally."
Support for "invisible" homelessness
People who experience some of these less visible forms of homelessness may still have certain resources at their disposal – for example, a car, money to cover a short stay in a hotel, or family willing to offer them a living space. But they're still only barely managing to survive.
For example, Stanley recalls the struggle to keep enough gas in her car to keep herself and her kids warm during the winter. And once she found housing again, she says Lighthouse was immensely helpful in providing her family toiletries and other basic needs that she would have struggled to obtain otherwise. These services were essential to getting Stanley and her family back on track.
"[Lighthouse] basically gave me a clean slate and started me all over again, so I can basically rebuild myself and be on my own again," she says.
McCall says additional funding is needed to prevent more situations like those experienced by Stanley, Bell, and Blessett.
"[I'm] not trying to make it sound easy, but we really need two things: more funds to assist when there is a bump in the road to help with an eviction and affordable housing," McCall says.
McCall notes that paying more than 30% of one's income on housing – the HUD threshold for housing affordability – creates a housing cost burden that often leads people to eviction and homelessness.
"[More affordable housing options] would help them stay current on housing costs and build savings to handle unexpected expenses," she says. "It would also free up resources that could be redirected to support individuals who are doubled up or paying out-of-pocket for hotel stays."
Stanley says finding affordable housing has been crucial to getting her life back on track since her experience with homelessness. She says she has "more freedom" to do things for her children, like decorating her apartment for holidays and birthdays. She also found a new job working in an auto supplier plant in August last year. Although Stanley was laid off early this year shortly after President Donald Trump took office, she now has more time and energy to seek a new job if she needs to.
"[Being housed] ... freed up the mind space to be able to breathe and be like, 'Okay, I'm actually working towards one of my goals,'" she says.