Workshop on

January 2006 Count of Homeless Persons

Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development

Goals of Workshop


Target Audience

 

Why are we doing a count?

Legal reasons:

Required by the state law, Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act (SSHB 21632005)

Required by federal HUD McKinney-Vento Funding Program

Why are we doing a count?

Practical reasons:

Gives community actual numbers (albeit imperfect) to do planning with

Ends fruitless debate between those that believe "there are no homeless" vs "there are 2,000", when the actual count shows 790

Raises community awareness of homeless through publicity of count and results

Numbers help in deciding what kind of activities you should fund with limited resources

Provides a way to measure progress of efforts

Builds community cohesion

Specific State Requirements

State Count Guidelines define count requirements coming from the state Homeless Act
Guidelines define:

 

Guidelines Allow Local Latitude

Count guidelines give wide local latitude concerning the policies and procedures

Local counts are free to ask additional questions as part of their count

Guidelines were developed in consultation with administrators of the historic count efforts in the state

Count techniques come from your peers

Workshop contents come from interviews with rural/semi-rural counties who have done counts

No county does all everything described in workshop

Different techniques apply depending on geography and community differences - street vs forest vs wheat fields

Don't hesitate to experiment

People in your community are the experts on where homeless persons are and how to count them

Urban counts (King, Pierce, Spokane) are different from rural counts

Who you are required to count

Homeless in places not meant for human habitation: outside, cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings, on the street

Homeless living in emergency shelter (1-90 day stay limit)

Homeless living in transitional housing (91 to 2 year stay limit)

Who you are encouraged to count

Although not technically homeless under state law, persons "doubled up with friends or family" or "couch surfers"

Doubled up/couch surfers are at risk of becoming homeless, and are eligible to receive services using state funding (Homeless Act, ESAP)

 

All efforts must count

In order of importance:
1    Persons (all household types)
2    Persons by gender
3    Single persons
4    Households (all household types)
5    Households with minor children accompanied by an adult(s)
6    Minor children in households, accompanied by an adult(s)
7    Persons under age 18 unaccompanied by an adult
8    Multiple adult households with no minor children
9    Senior Citizens (aged 65 or older)
10    1-9 above Unsheltered. (In places not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings, on the street)
11    1-9 above in Emergency Shelter (1-90 day time limits)
12    1-9 above in Transitional Housing (91 days to 2 years time limit)
13    Mentally disabled
14    Persons with alcohol and/or other drug problems.
15    Physically disabled
16    Domestic violence victims
17    Seasonal agricultural workers
18    Chronically homeless individuals (Homeless more than one year OR more than three times in last three years; with disability)
19    Persons with both substance use and mental health problems (formally diagnosed or self identified)
20    Persons with HIV/AIDS
21    Veterans


Count results must include an accounting of homeless persons throughout the county

Before count you should identify where significant numbers of homeless people live

If there are homeless persons living in/around a tiny town, count them

If after talking to law enforcement, homeless service providers, homeless persons, etc., it is determined that there are no homeless there, don't survey

A complete count does not equate to examining every square foot of a county

Consider law of diminishing returns, and deploy limited resources accordingly

Counts must respect privacy

No one is required to provide personally identifying information, or answer any other count questions

Homeless Act has an emphasis on protecting personally identifying information from victims of domestic violence

Counts must work to eliminate duplication, through identifiers, limited time of count, asking people not to do duplicate forms

 

Specifics of Count in the Balance of State Continuum of Care

CTED will be providing forms, a on line database, and specific procedures to counties in the Balance of State Continuum of Care

Other counties (King, Clark, Pierce, and Spokane) have their own specific forms and procedures

Any county free to use state forms and database

Organizing the count - Identify a count coordinator(s)

Responsibilities:
Typically half-time job over two months

Don't hesitate to spend money on count

Historically counts were done as an added responsibility of existing staff in homeless service organizations

Legislative intent was that these counts serve as the foundation of the Homeless Act

Excellent homeless programs but an incomplete count (and related homeless plan) will be viewed as a failure

Entire local pot of Homeless Act funding can be used on data collection and planning

County government has Homeless Act funding

 

Planning meetings

Participants:

Early task - Identify where homeless are

Use planning group, and ask homeless in shelters and feeding programs, where the homeless are:

Counting in shelters

Identify all emergency and transitional housing

Identify person from each organization responsible for conducting count

Ensure that responsible person has forms, training, and knows procedures/time lines

Counting in other places homeless are served

Identify other places homeless persons are served:
Identify people to conduct counts in those places

Ensure that responsible person has forms, training, and knows procedures/time lines

Counting at facilities where homeless persons congregate

Identify public/private buildings where homeless congregate:
Set up tables, and/or station people to survey homeless at these locations, 2-3 hour shifts
Use volunteers, and/or homeless persons in shelters to do surveys

Counting in Jails and Schools

Jail staff ask inmates who were homeless before entering jail to complete forms

Federally required school district homeless liasons may know of homeless families

Some alternative school students may be homeless

 

Bring homeless persons to central location(s)

Provide free food, cloths, toys, services, etc. at a certain time and place

Advertise through:

Bring homeless persons to central location(s)

Don't hold event indoors, instead in parking lot, park, bus station, etc.

Use donated food if possible, restaurants/caterers with capacity to do outdoor "barbecues"

Consider use of outdoor hot dog stand

Prepackaged food another option (sandwiches, bottled beverages)

Coats, socks, blankets, tooth brushes, shampoo, etc. are also good enticements

Free toys from Toys for Tots programs for kids in homeless families

Avoid obvious law enforcement presence

 

Find homeless living outside

Identify where they are before count:
Assign groups of up to five people to teams

Designate member of each team responsible for coordinating with count coordinator

Assign each team a geographic area and list of locations, as identified in planning process

Find homeless living outside - Safety

Under no circumstances should team members place themselves in an unsafe situation

No data is worth getting hurt over

Safety in numbers

Consider enlisting the help of homeless/formally homeless, who may have the relationships and/or experience necessary to conduct surveys safely

Sometimes homeless persons are paid to collect data

If available, use existing trained outreach workers (PATH, other mental health outreach workers)

Sometimes law enforcement or firefighters are part of team, but this can reduce participation

Find homeless living outside - Timing

During the day most people living outside are not at the place they sleep

Most counts happen at night, starting as early as 9 p.m., and as late a 1 a.m. -- Ending between 3 and 5 a.m.

Some do counts at 7 a.m., before homeless people are fully mobilized

Count teams can refer people they encounter to concurrent free food/cloths events, if they are not comfortable engaging with a surveyor in a remote location (i.e., young girls)

 

Find homeless living outside - Information collected

Often it is inappropriate/impossible to collect any demographic information from people living outside because:
Just counting the existence of a homeless person is a success - other demographics are "icing on the cake"

Some demographics can be observed without engagement, including gender, household status, approximate age, alcohol/other drug use issues

Find homeless living outside - Incentives to participate

Consider offering to persons found free:
   - Socks, coats,
   - blankets, tarps,
   - packaged food, water, power bars, candy, McDonald's coupons,
   - backpacks
   - etc.

Items can be donated, or purchased bulk at Costco

Find homeless living outside - Number of people found

Often surveyors will be sent to an area where people "know" there are homeless persons, and a few or no people are actually found

May be because of the time of the year, or may be a mis-perception of extent of the problem in a particular area

Counts in areas where no one is found are a success, because it allows you to defend the count methodology; critics can't say "there are 2,000" homeless, when you only counted 700

If people are critical of the completeness of the count, give them a pile of forms and ask them to find the homeless (depends on use of identifiers)

 

Balance of State - Form Overview

Household members identifiers for household members 1-4

Missing identifiers OK, but need gender and an approximate age

Questions in "household" section apply to the household as a group (i.e, housing status)

A single person is considered a "household" and should complete the "household" section

If there are more than four household members, enter additional number in blank provided

Ideally whole form is completed, but getting gender and approximate year born is a success

In many cases a staff/volunteer should fill out the form, although form can be filled out by homeless person in many cases

Balance of State - Setup database

Count coordinator given account in web database (login/password)

In the web based database, coordinator creates an account for each facility, survey location, or any other subunit you want to be able to run queries against

Balance of State - Enter all forms centrally

Count coordinator and/or related staff collects survey forms from all facilities/count locations/survey teams, and enters them into database under appropriate sub account

Advantages:
Disadvantage:

Most counties use this method

Balance of State - Each agency does own data entry

All or some of the individual agencies participating in the count are given an account login/password, and then do their own data entry

Advantage:
Disadvantage:

Balance of State - Reporting results

"Canned" results include chart needed for the Homeless Act Plan/McKinney

Custom queries can be run - "number of men aged 35-43  with alcohol problems living in cars in zip code 98506"

Queries can be run for individual facilities/count locations

Getting More Technical Assistance

Contact Tedd Kelleher, (360) 725-2930, teddk@cted.wa.gov

May refer you to a county contact (people with actual experience)

One-on-one technical assistance available from technical assitance pool in some cases

Homeless Act website (includes this presentation and associated handouts):
http://www.cted.wa.gov/portal/alias__cted/lang__en/tabID__823/DesktopDefault.aspx