This story is part of a series that highlights the challenges and solutions around housing in Southeast Michigan and is made possible through underwriting support from the Oakland County (Region L) Regional Housing Partnership.
When Devon Hollins became homeless, he says the first thing he felt was "dread." It was 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic had just hit. Hollins lost his sales job, found himself ineligible for unemployment benefits, and then lost his apartment in West Bloomfield Township.
"It was like, 'Man, I've done everything that I was supposed to do,'" Hollins says. "I went to school, I worked really hard, I got somewhere, and then I watched it all just kind of fade away without me having an option to have a rebuttal, because I couldn't go and find a job. All the jobs were shut down. So it was like, how do I save my situation? And I couldn't."
Hollins stayed in Detroit homeless shelters, found new housing, and then lost it again, saying that it was "hard to keep up with everything, coming from not having anything." In his second bout of homelessness, he stayed at
HOPE Shelters in Pontiac, which helped him find his current home in Pontiac as well as a job helping others experiencing homelessness at HOPE's adult shelter. Hollins says one of the most important things he learned from his experience was that "anybody could get to that point" of homelessness.
"A lot of people don't think that homelessness is really a big thing in Oakland County," he says. "I guess people don't think it's real, or it doesn't have a big impact, but it does. ... Everybody is affected. There's no demographic where it's just like, 'Oh, only these people are affected by homelessness.' No, I saw every age group, every race, within my time in homeless shelters. Everybody was there."
Sizing up Oakland County's homelessness problem
Despite Oakland County's
reputation for prosperity, stories like Hollins' are far more common in the county than many residents might expect. While it's difficult, if not impossible, to get a comprehensive count of how many county residents are experiencing homelessness, available data help to paint at least a partial picture. The Alliance for Housing, which coordinates housing services for Oakland County under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), identified
1,195 unique clients experiencing homelessness last year. And this year's Point in Time (PIT) Count, a HUD-required assessment conducted over a single day every year, found 357 people in emergency shelter, in transitional housing, or unhoused in the county.
Brian Wright, executive director of HOPE Shelters, echoes Hollins' assertion that homelessness can affect anyone. He says he's seen lawyers, surgeons, and even a Grammy winner as shelter clients. He says the most common cause of homelessness is "poverty plus," where the "plus" is an unexpected event like a breakup or a health issue.
"A lot of us, according to statistics, are one paycheck away from a major catastrophe in our own lives now," he says. "If we were already experiencing poverty and had an unexpected expense or an illness or a job loss or a death in the family, ... people fall into homelessness oftentimes."
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Steve KossBrian Wright on the proposed site of a new HOPE Shelter in Pontiac.
Youth homelessness is also a challenge for the county. In the Pontiac School District alone, Homeless Liaison Wilma Bell says about 60 families have reported experiencing homelessness just in the three months of the 2024-2025 school year so far. About 300 families reported experiencing homelessness in the district last school year. Bell says homelessness leads to restless, tired, and unfocused students.
"They're more worried than anything, so they can't study," she says. "They're trying to work, and then they're trying to take care of family members. It's just a bad effect on all of them."
Bell says the district's homelessness statistics are likely undercounted because they only account for families who have reported experiencing homelessness to the district. She says others likely choose not to self-report "because they don't want to get in trouble or they don't want other friends to know that they're homeless."
In many cases, Oakland County residents experiencing homelessness may find shelter in unexpected places, making the problem even less visible. Ashley Cuniberti, grants and community manager at the Alliance for Housing, oversees Oakland County's PIT Count. She says the 100 volunteers who participate in the annual count fan out to identify unhoused people across at least 100 "hot spots" in the county, including bus stops, train stations, parking lots, libraries, hospitals, grocery stores, and fast food restaurants.
"I have had people say before that there isn't a homeless issue within Oakland County," Cuniberti says. "So I do feel like if we have specific data, then it does show that there is a specific need, and we need to spend some more time and resources to strategically plan on how to help people who are experiencing homelessness in Oakland County."
Wright says he thinks there's "a lot of denial" about homelessness in Oakland County. He says he's heard local politicians say there are only homeless people in Pontiac because HOPE Shelters established a shelter there. However, he says "the vast majority" of the shelter's clients have a previous mailing address either in Pontiac or surrounding communities.
"I think people want to push folks either to Flint or to Detroit and just say they have no business being here," he says. "But this is their home."
Affordable housing, shelter, services needed
Asked what Oakland County needs to reduce homelessness, Bell's answer is simple.
"Affordable housing, period," she says, noting that eviction due to high rents is one of the most common causes of homelessness in the Pontiac School District.
Cuniberti agrees, adding that the annual PIT Count "always" demonstrates need for both more affordable housing and more shelter capacity. Within those shelters, Wright says it's important to have a low barrier to entry. At HOPE Shelters, guests needn't present an ID or pass a background or sobriety check to receive shelter. Wright says that approach is uncommon, in part due to a common "assumption" that people experiencing homelessness are either mentally ill or drug addicts. He estimates that only about 20% of the people his organization serves have addiction issues.
"Somebody who's actually in homeless services dared to say to me, 'Some people are addicts and they're just hopeless. There's no point in spending time with them,'" Wright says. "Wow. I just wanted to strangle this guy. I told him, 'You might want to consider retiring because if that's your attitude, you're the guy that's hopeless.'"
Wright adds that it's important to provide not just shelter, but also ample services to support people experiencing homelessness. He says HOPE Shelters' recidivism rate is low, around 5-10%, in part because the organization's staff develops an individualized plan to help each client get back on track. Those plans could include connecting clients to physical or mental health care, legal services, or housing programs. Wright says the county's homeless shelters need more support to provide such services to more people. He also advocates for faith communities to provide similar services to people experiencing homelessness who may be unwilling to go to a homeless shelter.
"I really think that we can make progress, but it takes all of us working together, and it takes us all facing the issues and not denying it," Wright says. "We've got to admit that it's a problem and put the adequate resources to it and make it happen."
Hollins says both shelter and case management were crucial to helping him get back on his feet. His case manager at HOPE Shelters helped him apply for a Bridge card and Section Eight housing while he worked on finding a new job. He recently got a raise and is planning to buy a car and move out of Section 8 housing.
"As soon as I was able to get somewhere I could feel a little safe, a little comfortable, and go and work, I was doing pretty good for myself," he says.
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Steve KossBrian Wright and Devon Hollins at HOPE Shelters' adult homeless shelter in Pontiac.
Hollins says most people experiencing homelessness simply need a few essential services and some basic respect to get their lives back on track.
"Being homeless is not an easy thing," he says. "Coming back from having nothing is a very difficult process. And so, if anybody deserves patience, I believe it's people that are currently doing that."
Patrick Dunn is the managing editor of Concentrate and a freelance writer and editor. He lives in Ypsilanti.
Photos by Steve Koss.