Hub sees 9 percent rise in homelessness

Boston's homeless population jumped by 9 percent last year over the previous year, the highest number ever recorded, the mayor's office reported yesterday.

The figures reflected a nearly 50 percent increase in families staying in shelters or enrolled in transitional programs, officials said.

Officials believe that many of the additional families in shelters and programs -- 746 households last year, compared with 505 in 2004 -- were previously part of the city's ''hidden homeless," people who elude the annual count because they crowd unsafely into small apartments or sleep on the couches of relatives and friends. They are now being counted among the homeless, officials said, because new state guidelines have made more families eligible for shelters and transitional programs.

The record number of homeless counted was 6,365 men, women, and children. Over the past five years, the annual census has hovered at about 6,000 people.

Among the bright spots of the mayor's annual census, conducted by volunteers last month, was the discovery that a smaller percentage of the homeless population was found living on the street: 261 in December, compared with 299 the previous year, a 13 percent decrease.

The category that saw the greatest increase was homeless families, both those in shelters or other programs and those living on the streets. The total number of family members increased 24 percent, to 2,325 people.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and others decried the persistent problem of homelessness at a news conference yesterday at a health center for the homeless in Jamaica Plain. Participants called on state officials to release about $25 million set aside for victims of Hurricane Katrina, much of it unused.

''There's too many homeless families," Menino said. ''That's our Katrina."

Julie Teer, a spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney, said unspent money in the budget is routinely returned to the general fund for future expenditures. The governor is expected to unveil his budget later this week.

Advocates blamed continuing high housing costs in Boston, which are among the highest in the country, for stymieing families who want to escape homelessness.

The average monthly wage for families who have jobs and are living in shelters is $1,200, said Stephanie Brown, executive director of Homes for Families. But the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Boston is $1,266.

The advocates also blamed continuing homelessness on the reduction in federal housing subsidies and state rental vouchers available for low-income families.

But they applauded changes approved by the Legislature that took effect in July and allowed more families to qualify for shelter living. The new rules allowed families who earn 130 percent of the federal poverty level, up from 100 percent, to qualify for spots.

Alvaro Omar Larrama, 22, lives with his wife and two children at the Huntington Avenue YMCA, part of a transitional program that allows him to attend college and his wife to participate in a job-training program. They qualify for day-care vouchers for their children, ages 3 1/2 and 1. The shelter, Larrama said, allows them to survive. He is studying business at Roxbury Community College.

''Now they're asking $1,500 for a two-bedroom [apartment]," he said. ''I'd need four jobs to pay that."

Larrama watched his tenuous financial state fall apart in a 2002 fire that destroyed the $800-a-month apartment he was renting from his aunt. He and his wife found they could not afford to pay market-rate rents in Boston and ended up crashing wherever they could.

''We were just basically hopping from relatives to relatives," he said. ''It was really hard."

Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com.