We study the existence, multiplicity, and certain qualitative properties of solutions to the zero Dirichlet problem for the equation −Δ 𝑝 𝑢 = 𝜆|𝑢| 𝑝−2 𝑢 + 𝑎(𝑥)|𝑢| 𝑞−2 𝑢 in a bounded domain Ω ⊂ R 𝑁 , where 1 < 𝑞 < 𝑝, 𝜆 ∈ R, and 𝑎 is a continuous sign-changing weight function. Our primary interest concerns ground states and nonnegative solutions which are positive in {𝑥 ∈ Ω : 𝑎(𝑥) > 0}, when the parameter 𝜆 lies in a neighborhood of the criticalmain results, we show that if 𝑝 > 2𝑞 and either ∫︀ Ω 𝑎𝜙 𝑞 𝑝 𝑑𝑥 = 0 or ∫︀ Ω 𝑎𝜙 𝑞 𝑝 𝑑𝑥 > 0 is sufficiently small, then such solutions do exist in a right neighborhood of 𝜆 * . Here 𝜙 𝑝 is the first eigenfunction of the Dirichlet 𝑝-Laplacian in Ω. This existence phenomenon is of a purely subhomogeneous and nonlinear nature, since either in the superhomogeneous case 𝑞 > 𝑝 or in the sublinear case 𝑞 < 𝑝 = 2 the nonexistence takes place for any 𝜆 ≥ 𝜆 * . Moreover, we prove that if 𝑝 > 2𝑞 and ∫︀ Ω 𝑎𝜙 𝑞 𝑝 𝑑𝑥 > 0 is sufficiently small, then there exist three nonzero nonnegative solutions in a left neighborhood of 𝜆 * , two of which are strictly positive in {𝑥 ∈ Ω : 𝑎(𝑥) > 0}.