BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio — Almost 500 people in Butler County have no steady place to live — hundreds more than previously counted, according to new data.
"We see it every day. We see in the shelter that our beds are always full," said Dr. Tammi Ector, the executive director for the outreach center Serve City.
The growing homeless population has prompted calls for a more urgent response to help those in need.
Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter wants the county to break away from the state's homeless services network.
Carpenter said she believes that creating an independent county board could bring millions of dollars in additional federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
"We're the second fastest growing county in the state of Ohio; the mathematics makes sense that our homeless population is growing," Carpenter said.
WATCH: One woman's story from homelessness to helping others in Butler County
Butler County currently receives about $1.6 million in federal funding each year, while other similar-sized counties with independent boards get between $4 and $6 million.
As WCPO reported earlier this week, some Middletown business owners are calling for more swift but compassionate solutions.
"Can you imagine walking around in that heat for eight hours, twelve hours, until the sun goes down?" Tammy Wright, a Middletown business owner, told WCPO Monday.
Ector knows this struggle firsthand.
"Through no poor choices of my own, I'm a domestic violence survivor, ended up experiencing homeless, street homelessness, sleeping out on the street in the City of Hamilton, I came from Hamilton County, ended up in Hamilton," Ector said.
Now at Serve City, which helps feed and house those who are homeless, Ector says she's seeing changes in who needs help in the community.
"It can happen to anyone, we're experiencing more individuals who are coming from, like a middle-class background," Ector said. "Butler County needs to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that we have adequate funding to meet the need."
