The Knoxville and Knox County homeless population is increasingly reporting a history of mental health treatment, according to the latest biennial study released Tuesday.

The Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition conducts interviews with a sample of the homeless population in the city and county every two years. This is the Coalition’s seventeenth study.

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The Coalition releases its findings along with the Knoxville Homeless Management Information System or HMIS, which releases an annual report on people who within a calendar year used a service from a partner agency such as KARM or Salvation Army.

According to the HMIS report, nearly 9,000 people reported homelessness in 2017, which is a five percent decrease to the number reported in 2016.

This year, the report includes two separate reports specific to the unsheltered homeless population and the Broadway Avenue/I-40 Overpass or “under the bridge.” That survey was conducted separately from the Biennial Study in October 2017.

Biennial Study

The 2018 Biennial Study workers conducted 215 interviews in January 2018 at shelters, transitional housing and outdoor events. The study supplements U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s required Point in Time count.

The study found 64 percent of the people interviewed reported a history of mental health treatment, compared to 58 percent in 2016. Less than half of those people reported they were currently getting treatment.

The 2018 Biennial Study found that 30 percent of respondents have lived in Knox County for 10 or more years.

The study also found that a history of foster care has been increasingly reported among respondents. 22 percent of respondents reported they lived in foster care in 2018, as opposed to 12 percent in 2016 and 14 percent in 2014. Also, 46 percent of respondents reported having experienced abuse as a child.

According to the 2018 study, the leading self-reported cause of homelessness is drug addiction, which has been increasingly reported over the years since the study began in 1986. Other reported reasons for homelessness include alcoholism, no money for housing or lost job.

More than half of the respondents in the study said affordability is their biggest hurdle for finding housing. Fifteen percent of respondents reported they are on a waitlist for Section 8 housing, and a majority report being wait listed for an average of nine months.

The 2018 study reports 77 percent of the people interviewed say they are currently not working.

The study also found that long-term homelessness was up by 8 percent since 2016-- 85 percent of those who said they had been previously homeless had been homeless three or more times.

There was, however, a four percent decrease in first-time homelessness since 2016.

The average shelter stay during a year also decreased from 110 nights in 2014 to 98 nights in 2018.

Participants also said that the majority of them had significant health issues, with 88 percent reporting one or more.

Unsheltered Analysis

The Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition says it did not conduct interviews at homeless camps for the Biennial Study for a number of reasons, including “increased tension and an often held perception that allowing interviewers or outreach workers into camps results in camp elimination by the city.”

Instead, the report states workers interviewed 37 unsheltered people at Lost Sheep and Highways and By-Ways Ministries. It found 70 percent of campers reported drug use.

“Under the Bridge”

Workers conducted a separate survey in October 2017 about the homeless community under the I-40 overpass on Broadway near downtown Knoxville.

The Coalition partnered with workers from Knoxville Knox-County Community Action Committee, KARM, and the Helen Ross McNabb Center.

The study found 74 percent “under the bridge” report no income, more than half use substances and 86 percent usually sleep outside or on the street.

The top three causes reported from “under the bridge homeless” include being evicted, not having a job or not having money.

The “under the bridge” study found that 43 percent of respondents said they were not accessing services that would help them get out of homelessness. The respondents report this for various reasons, the most common including, "Not ready/Just haven't done it yet," "Don't want services," and "Don't know how." Knoxville and Knox County service providers want to make clear that services are offered.

KnoxHMIS Annual Report

According to the KnoxHMIS report, 8,938 people reported homelessness in 2017 to partner agencies. KnoxHMIS says 9,373 reported homelessness in 2016, which is a five percent decrease.

The report states the number of new clients increased by 18 percent and continuing clients-- or clients who entered into HMIS before January 1, 2017-- decreased by 15 percent.

The report states the increase in new clients could be from continuing clients successfully leaving programs, thus allowing more new clients to access services.

According to the report, almost half of new clients get into services through emergency shelters

10News will continue to update this story.