Before winter sets in, Washtenaw County community leaders are working to expand the stock of available beds at local homeless shelters.

Mary Jo Callan, director of the city-county office of community development, gave a report to the Ann Arbor City Council Monday night and said poverty and homelessness are on the rise. It's time for an emergency response to the crisis, she told the council.

"Every facet of our homeless system is seeing an increased demand," Callan said. 

She cited the statistics:

• A 20 percent increase overall in single adults.
• A 33 percent increase in chronically homeless adults.
• A 29 percent increase in families.
• An 86 percent increase in unaccompanied youth.

Callan said those counts include all people who have come in contact with the shelter system, including those who are homeless and those on the verge of homelessness. Increased unemployment and a lack of affordable housing are the primary contributors to the problem, she told city officials.

Callan laid out plans Monday night for an increased response this winter to the homeless crisis. A total of 189 beds are currently scattered throughout the county's various shelters. In addition, the Delonis Center at 312 W. Huron St. adds 50 overnight spaces through a warming center and rotating shelter in the winter.

The plan is to add 25 more spaces on the second floor of the Delonis Center, along with a 25-space warming center on the first floor, while doubling the rotating shelter capacity from 25 to 50 beds. 

The expanded services would last four months, from Dec. 1 through March 31, and would cost about $25,000.

"This is really important at this point in time primarily because of the economy," said Ellen Schulmeister, executive director of the Delonis Center. "We are anticipating people are going to run out of their resources during a very difficult time, in the winter. We're trying to have a response that will allow us to have enough resources to assist people when they need the help. All the indicators are that more and more people are going to need safety net help."

Callan said community leaders have explored what it would cost to create another site through the winter for families, but that's proven difficult and costly. Instead, she said, it's more reasonable to fund temporary housing vouchers for 10 families with support services provided through the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Washtenaw County.

That would move families currently in shelters into other housing units and get some people off the streets, Callan said. She said she has been talking with landlords to find units for rent and estimates it would cost $50,000 to support 10 families through the winter.

It's not yet known how the cost would be split, but the city, county, and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority are being approached as possible partners. The DDA last week offered an initial pledge of $20,000 to fund the purchase of cots and other supplies.

"They're short-term solutions - we know that - but that's where we're at," Callan told city council members Monday night. 

No action has been taken yet by the City Council.

Callan said the real solution to homelessness is an ample stock of affordable housing. Since 2005, the City Council has supported the development of 58 affordable and supportive housing units for the homeless and used $3.2 million in cash to leverage an additional $5.1 million in funding to help expand the stock of affordable housing, Callan said. Additionally, the city has worked to maintain 161 units of permanent housing, some of which is designated for the homeless.

The City Council this year - consistent with past years - put $800,000 toward housing and homelessness services and another $300,000 toward alleviating hunger and preventing evictions and foreclosures, Callan said.

Ned Staebler, chairman of the Housing and Human Services Advisory Board, joined Callan on Monday to lobby for support of the shelter expansion initiative.

"It's getting cold outside," Staebler said. "We've had two years of record snowfall ... and this year's probably going to be just as bad, if not worse. Therefore I think it's clear what we need to do."

In her report, Callan said 14.6 percent of people in Washtenaw County were living in poverty last year, an increase of 2 percent from the year before. In the city of Ann Arbor, the poverty rate is almost 25 percent, a 5.1 percent increase over 2007.

Ann Arbor's unemployment rate is at 9.5 percent, with the rest of the state at 15 percent. Since 2000, Michigan has lost almost 1 million jobs.

The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department reports 762 evictions in the first nine months of this year. From 2006 to 2008, foreclosures have increased 105 percent, according to Callan's report.

Since 2007, the Humane Society of Huron Valley has seen a 50 percent increase in people surrendering their pets for reasons of "owner cannot afford" or "owner evicted/foreclosure." Food Gatherers reports it has seen a 35 percent increase in demand for food services.

SOS Community Services reports a 22 percent increase in demand for housing crisis services, and the Salvation Army reports a 30 percent increase in assistance requests from people who are newly unemployed. Of those coming in contact with the community's homeless response system, Callan said about 60 percent are homeless for the first time.

On any given night, Callan estimates, 30 to 80 people are living in tent encampments around the city of Ann Arbor.

Anyone interested in supporting the shelter expansion initiative can contact the Washtenaw Housing Alliance at whainfo@ewashtenaw.org.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.