Finding and Counting the Homeless Among Us
News by Scott France
The annual nationwide point-in-time count (PIT) of people experiencing homelessness will be conducted on January 29th.
This year's survey takes on heightened importance and poignancy amidst a backdrop of widespread cancellation of federal data collection programs and reports and the removal of public datasets and webpages, as well as the dismantling of material support for more vulnerable people.
At a local level, the wounds of the City of Port Townsend’s November closure of the Evans Vista homeless encampment are fresh. The city announced the closure with only two months' notice and virtually no transition planning or coordination with the encampment residents or homeless advocacy organizations.
At the federal level, the PIT count results are reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which has introduced rules shifting funds away from the "Housing First" model, which prioritizes getting people into stable, permanent housing with voluntary services. The new "Treatment First" approach caps permanent housing grants at 30% of federal funds and moves the majority of resources toward transitional housing that includes mandatory work and addiction treatment requirements.
How PIT Works
The PIT count is imperfect and can best be described as a census-style estimate rather than a headcount that captures everyone experiencing homelessness, according to homelessness advocates.
“It's a measure of a community's capacity to house or shelter its most vulnerable,” said Viola Ware, Director of Housing and Community Services for OlyCAP.
The counts can show whether homelessness is generally rising or falling. They are required by the federal government to qualify for major housing and homelessness grants, and are used to inform policy and advance homeless advocacy efforts.
“All of our shelters will be automatically polled as part of a program or database called Homeless Management Information System,” Ware said, “We will also send people out to transitional housing sites to poll people housed there.”
Local organizations participating in the count besides OlyCAP include Dove House, the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, and area community centers. The Winter Welcoming Center, the Quilcene Community Center and the VFW in Port Hadlock welcome homeless folks to visit their sites that day, be counted, and enjoy a warm meal and place to rest. More information may be found through the link at the end of this article.
What the PIT Reveals. . . and What it Misses
The definition of homelessness used in the PIT counts describes people who are living outside or are marginally housed, for example, living in a shed with no access to a bathroom or cooking facilities, such as a stove. Youth who are couch surfing are normally considered homeless due to their increased vulnerability to such things as being trafficked, though they are not counted as part of PIT .
Ware expressed confidence that this year's count will be more accurate than those in previous years, due to adjustments made based on discussions with organizations that have participated in previous counts.
“I'm excited about it because we have a better idea of how to close the gaps, for example, needing additional outreach in south [Jefferson] County, because that has been an area that has been significantly undercounted,” Ware said.
“If the count is done effectively, we use the information, whether it's the physical count itself or the extraneous data we get to look at how to model our services moving forward,” Ware said.
Local homeless advocate Julia Cochrane believes that the count misses many veterans in their 60s, 70s and 80s who are living in the Olympic National Park and other forested areas in the county.
“I'm going to get a new tent for a vet whose tent in the forest burned,” Cochrane said, “When I asked why he didn't want to live inside, he said that if he got the perfect little house, he'd feel guilty because all his buddies are still out in the woods. Most of those people don't get counted.”
Cochrane and Ware say that families with children are among the most undercounted groups. “A lot of families are not going to show up because they don't want to be identified because they're afraid they're going to lose their kids,” Cochrane said.
Ware expects that immigrant families will be less willing to be counted this year than in previous years. She added that many women make an extra effort to stay hidden due to their vulnerability and, for many, their experience with domestic abuse.
Ware said that an indicator of progress, say 5 years from now, would be “functional zero, that means that everybody who's homeless we know by name, and at the moment somebody becomes homeless, we have enough services to provide to them immediately. And that their time being homeless is short.”
Ware said that there are other excellent indicators than the PIT count for understanding homelessness trends through “observations of our outreach workers from our public health folks to Michael McCutcheon, who is out in the field every day feeding people.”
McCutcheon is widely known and appreciated by the homeless community in Jefferson County through the meals that he prepares, cooks and delivers to people in highly isolated and desperate situations.
PIT counts are one tool in the toolbox to help communities across the country understand the landscape of homelessness in their counties, and to integrate that data with that of other information-gathering methodologies to inform important policy and program decisions.
On their own, PIT counts are poor tools for real-world decision-making. They do not tell communities how many shelter beds are needed next month, which populations are being turned away, or whether existing programs are helping people move into permanent housing. Those answers come from ongoing data collected by shelters and outreach workers throughout the year.
For more information on this year’s PIT count, visit:
https://olycap.org/annual-point-in-time-count
