Amiyna Whitehurst woke up in her car with her daughters last March in her work’s parking lot. She had been homeless for four months after issues with her last apartment left her bankrupt and bouncing between places to stay.
“I just can’t do it again,” Whitehurst recalled her daughter telling her regarding sleeping in a car.
While her daughter was at school, a social worker notified Whitehurst the kids, ages 8 and 10, had been transported to a transitional house in Newport News. Whitehurst ended up moving her mother and sister, both disabled, along with her two daughters and niece, to the shelter. But the shelters were full and struggling to keep up with demand, Whitehurst said, especially for people with families and jobs trying to climb their way out of bad circumstance. She and her family eventually ended up in a hotel.
“It was just so bad,” Whitehurst said. “We were told we made too much money, so we had to leave.”
Whitehurst’s struggle to find stable housing illustrates a frustrating reality. Finding a bed for a night may be a welcome reprieve for families experiencing homelessness, but it doesn’t solve an underlying problem of housing insecurity or ensure people have the resources to get back on their feet.
Aaron Easter is the chair of Virginia Organizing’s Hampton and Newport News chapter, which has been advocating for increasing shelter capacity and creating a regional year-round shelter for the past three years. According to Easter, housing instability can affect anyone. He wants Peninsula city governments to do more to ensure enough spaces to support anyone that may fall on hard times.
“The real situation is something that could happen to most people. They lose their job, get an injury,” Easter said. “It isn’t just because they didn’t try hard enough or they’re lazy or made bad decisions.”
Despite having more than 1,400 beds to shelter people across the Peninsula, finding an opening can be a struggle. Transitional housing, of which there were only 18 beds, was at 111% capacity, according to the latest Greater Virginia Peninsula Homeless Consortium Point In Time report.
The 82 rapid rehousing beds also were completely full. Permanent supportive housing, accounting for 518 beds, was at 95% capacity, and the 457 emergency shelter beds were at 75% capacity. Other permanent housing options, accounting for 328 beds, were 99% full, the report found.
Whitehurst is paying $1,500 per month to keep her family in a hotel to provide housing and protect her kids from seeing activities such as drug usage in shelters.
“I want to do this the right way, and because of that, I feel like I’m holding my kids back because I don’t have anywhere for them to run,” Whitehurst said. “I can’t let them out of these hotels. I don’t want my children to see that.”
Shelters on the Peninsula are run by a variety of organizations, and some receive city assistance. But neither Hampton nor Newport News operate a shelter for people experiencing homelessness, according to city officials. Both cities say they are looking at ways to provide better resources or more bed space.
Hampton set aside a tentative $1.5 million from last year’s budget for a regional shelter, and is working through the issue with regional partners, according to city spokesperson Michael Holtzclaw,
Newport News provides support for the Four Oaks Day Service Center, according to city spokesperson Gabrielle Torres. Newport News has three local shelters, all with restrictions on who can stay there. The city has contracted a study to assess local homelessness and is working to provide additional prevention, rapid rehousing and employment programs.
Hampton saw 166 people experiencing homelessness last year, up from 130 in 2023, according to a Greater Virginia Peninsula Homeless Consortium Point In Time report. Newport News saw 184 people experiencing homelessness last year, down from 306 in 2023.
During the 24-hour period the report counted, GVPHC, which covers Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg, Poquoson, James City County and York County, saw 1,413 available beds for people in need in 2024. This was a 292-bed drop from the previous year.
Even if there are beds available for people, Easter said meeting the requirements can be difficult. Many shelters have restrictions based on gender, number of people and winter-only availability, which can leave many with no place to go during 100-degree summer months.
Andre Hammond has been in that position before. He grew up in Hampton and first experienced homelessness in 2016 after struggling to get a job due to being a felon and having health issues, and again after he separated from his wife.
For many people experiencing homelessness, an overnight stay somewhere, if they can find one, isn’t enough help, Hammond said. If you get a bed from a shelter on a first-come-first-serve basis, you have to be gone by 6 a.m. For people with no transportation option, that means standing at a bus stop in the cold or rain.
Hammond said most people on the streets are aspiring to achieve more than their homelessness has relegated them to, and hopes more long-term solutions such as improved sheltering access will help other people see it too.
“People use the term ‘dirty’ a lot. ‘Dirty’ is an individual that goes through life dripping like water with no goals or aspirations,” Hammond said. “That’s not always the case. Until someone you know sits and talks with them, you’ll never know that story.”