6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Improving our local Point in Time Count MARIE Groundcover contributor The inspiration for this riveting exposé about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Point-In-Time (PIT) Count occured at the May 23, 2024, Washtenaw County Continuum of Care (CoC) meeting. (The CoC is the official body whose responsibility is to “coordinate the community’s policies, strategies, and activities toward ending homelessness.”) At this meeting I discovered I literally didn’t count, as I was not found among the 13 unsheltered homeless nor among the 317 sheltered in government recognized overnight programming on a specific night in late January. The PIT Count, according to HUD’s 2014 PIT Count Methodology Guide, is a federally-mandated count, described as a one night census-like snapshot of all sheltered and unsheltered persons experiencing homelessness. Counts are conducted through local CoC’s; a yearly report generated from data collected from all CoC’s across the country is published on the HUD Exchange website and presented to Congress as part of the Annual Homeless Assessment Report. Washtenaw’s CoC is managed by the County’s Office of Community and Economic Development. OCED staff responsibilities include overseeing CoC business including CoC governance, as well as homeless and housing related data collection and statistical analysis. Reporting on the above was part of CoC’s November presentation. These responsibilities include decisions about housing developments, grant awards, systems planning, and deciding on housing-related resource allocation. While the PIT count is known to have pitfalls, the count is important as it impacts eligibility for current, future and prospective project funding at all levels. It was clear at the CoC unveiling of the 2025 PIT Count Methodology, that without immediate intervention, many homeless of Washtenaw County will again go uncounted, which will continue to perpetuate the current climate, the vicious cycle of homelessness and housing instability. The November 20th CoC meeting presented the methodology for the 2025 PIT count map looked more like a deer in the headlights than like three AAA batteries and a headlamp. In fact, even just counting the number of unsheltered homeless hit by cars and those found dead in the streets over the last year equates to a higher number than 13. While on the surface it appears our local PIT Count methodology may currently meet HUD’s minimum standards, OCED admitted they have not made any updates to the methodology in years, and there is room for improvement in the area of both sheltered and unsheltered counting efforts. To help readers with the basics of the PIT Count methodology, this article includes some important highlights gathered from the HUD Exchange website and local 2024 OCED presentations attended by this writer. Nationally, counts are required to take place in the last 10 days in January; Washtenaw coordinates its count with other Michigan CoC’s to take place on the last Wednesday in January. While HUD requires a yearly count of the unsheltered, CoC’s are only required to conduct unsheltered counts bi-yearly during odd years; locally, the unsheltered count is conducted yearly. According to this year’s OCED presentations, Washtenaw conducts a full-census count, where it attempts to collect data from all sheltered and unsheltered persons using a combination of “day of” and “post day” collection. Historically, data about the unsheltered count has come from the local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), and data for persons who are unsheltered comes from surveys conducted by volunteers. According to our local OCED, sheltered persons who should be counted include persons who are living in supervised, publicly or privately owned shelters designed to provide temporary living arrangements — including shelters, transitional housing, hotel or motel paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state or local government funders. Efforts are currently underway to address gaps in the sheltered count as not all local sheltering options are in the HMIS database. Data collection from non-HMIS sources will likely take the form of a paper or online survey. OCED describes eligible unsheltered people as persons with a primary nighttime residence that is not designated for human habitation which includes a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, campground or site. According to an OCED debrief this month, data about the unsheltered has historically relied on information collected via surveys collected by trained volunteers who canvass the county on predetermined paths via car and on foot the night of the count between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., with a post night effort that stopped due to COVID restrictions at a single church in Ann Arbor that serves breakfast. The local OCED describes people who should be excluded from the count as persons residing in a hotel or DECEMBER 27, 2024 Marie (left) and Cynthia Price (right) reviewing notes from the November Continuum of Care meeting. Photo credit: Eli O Hara Graph source: May 23, 2024 CoC All Membership Meeting at United Way Ann Arbor “Washtenaw County Point-In-Time Count Community Debriefing.” motel they paid for themselves, persons staying with friends or family, persons admitted to the hospital not including the emergency room, and people who do not explicitly meet the HUD definitions of sheltered or unsheltered. To improve the unsheltered count and data collection for the 2025 count, efforts are underway to minimally add sites to the post day count by adding the Ann Arbor Daytime Warming Center location, currently scheduled to be at St Mary’s Student Parish, adding the Ypsilanti Freighthouse Daytime Warming Center, and resuming data collection at St Andrews Church in Ann Arbor, referred to as the breakfast church by the homeless community. Additionally, efforts are underway to increase participation from people with lived experience with homelessness, especially as it pertains to improving culturally competent and trauma-informed data collection. For example, allowing people approached by volunteers on foot in the middle of the night to decide what information they want to divulge. The effort will also educate the community about the meaning, value, and methodology of the PIT Count. This article has hopefully helped inform the homeless community as well as those volunteers and professionals serving the homeless about PIT Count basics. While the PIT Count may not reach every person experiencing homelessness, the data gathered during yearly counts is a primary statistic being used in beneficial programs and a pilot program in six cities called "ALL INside," which is worth the better part of a billion dollars. The next PIT count is scheduled for January 29, 2025. Volunteers will meet at 9:45 p.m. on the night of January 28, and counts will continue into the morning of January 29, ending at 2 a.m. The post-day count will occur on the 29th at the sites listed above. Please look for a formal announcement in the upcoming January 10 edition of Groundcover News, which will have details about how and where to be to be counted if you are homeless and want to be included in the count. Incentives, especially for the unsheltered count, are expected and may include gift cards, winter gear and food. If you are interested in helping with the count or would like to contribute donations to be distributed during the night of the count or during the post-day count, please contact Andrew Kraemer with Washtenaw’s OCED at kraemera@washtenaw.org, call Groundcover News, visit one of Washtenaw’s Daytime warming center sites or look for finalized details about the PIT Count in the next edition of Groundcover.
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