With the increases being made every year to rent, groceries and other basic everyday needs, it is not a surprise that the United States has a large homeless population.

Other contributing factors include mental health and drug addiction.

Local and state governments have responded with plans to get people off the streets. In Rochester, city leaders recently set aside a large chunk of money to find temporary housing for some of them. There’s a plan to purchase and install “pods” in the city’s only sanctioned homeless encampment.

Home is what you make it. But for many people the choices are limited. That’s if there are any choices at all.

“I think a lot of people don’t understand there are so many people unhoused out here,” Lisa Kuhmann said.

Kuhmann sees many of them in her role as outreach manager for Person Centered Housing Options.

It’s a group that recently helped clean one place up.

“I feel passionate about helping clean up the community our clients are living in,” volunteer Elena Muscato said. “Everyone should have a right to a clean space, no matter what their situation is and so I'm just here doing what I can to help out.”

Peace Village is the city of Rochester’s only sanctioned homeless encampment.

The village started around 2018 when the city cleared other homeless camps.

"People were all over the city," said Nicholas Coulter of Person Centered Housing Options. "We really wanted to provide a space that was safe.”

Big changes are coming to Peace Village -- the place where trains consistently motor by just feet away. The city of Rochester decided to divert $750,000 unspent funds from the Police Accountability Board’s budget and put it toward 15 new “pods” built by Washington-based “Pallet.”

The path volunteers are clearing will also include office and community spaces for support services, real bathrooms and electricity.

"Without the right support [and] without the right guidance with folks that are on the streets, you're often hit or miss when you're trying to outreach to them when you're here," Coulter said. "And we have these transitional pods with electric heat and staff on site. We're more likely to move people from the streets to housing quicker and provide them with better services.”

The new shelters aren’t meant to be a permanent solution for the homeless.

“I think sometimes people feel like why would you want to house people in these little pellet homes,” Kuhmann said. “But they don't understand that it's not a permanent thing. It's a transitional thing. And it's to kind of give them their own space.”

It’s a path to a place they can truly call home.

“That stability is really important to people,” Kuhmann said.