Roanoke’s Hope and Home Task Force is recommending the city take a more proactive approach to address homelessness. Recommendations include aligning its nonprofits and government agencies to function as a regional service hub— perhaps with a tiny house village for transitional housing.
Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb convened the Hope and Home Task Force in the fall of 2025, to figure out how to address the city’s unhoused population. The pandemic disrupted the housing market and sent rents soaring. More than a third of Roanoke’s households are cost-burdened, and the number of people who are unsheltered has boomed, Cobb said.
“The report also documents a 467% increase in unsheltered homelessness between 2019 and 2025,” Cobb said. “Roanoke city public school has identified hundreds of students experiencing homelessness each year, approaching 700 in 2024-25.”…