Community Members Assist in 2014 Houston Homeless Count

Communications Admin • Feb 05, 2014
The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County conducted the annual 2014 Houston Homeless Count on January 30, with the help of partner organizations, local government agencies, faith-based organizations, local universities, and community members.

The Count is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the local Continuum of Care (CoC) funding process, which brought more than $25 million to homeless assistance programs in Houston, Harris County, and Fort Bend County during the fiscal year (FY) 2012. On the night of the Count, more than 500 volunteers from the community depart from 10 staging areas across Houston, Harris County, and Fort Bend County to count individuals, veterans, families, and young people that live on the streets. Surface Teams conducted their count from vehicles, while Specialized Outreach Teams, comprised of staff from local service providers and government agencies, conducted interviews on foot.

In addition to the unsheltered count, there is also a sheltered count known as the Housing Inventory Chart (HIC), conducted on the same night through the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) which the Coalition manages. The HIC provides an inventory of projects within the Houston/Harris County CoC that provide beds and units dedicated to serve homeless individuals and reflects the number of beds and units available on the night of the Count that are dedicated to serve homeless individuals.

The total number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals is then reported to HUD, and the information gathered assists our community in determining what type of services and housing is needed to best serve our homeless population. In 2013, Houston counted 2,978 unsheltered homeless individuals and 3,381 sheltered homeless individuals for a total of 6,359 homeless people on any given night in our community. There has been a 27% decrease in this number from 2011, and the community is hopeful that the 2014 Count will highlight even more success in ending homelessness.

“In 2013, there were great strides made in housing homeless veterans and other individuals through collaborative efforts of Houston’s homeless service providers,” said Marilyn Brown, President/CEO of the Coalition. “The 2013 Homeless Count provided our agencies with hard data about the characteristics of the area’s homeless community. In turn this helped our service providers develop assistance programs for people who are homeless. The 2014 Count will hopefully validate our common goal of working together as a system, rather than independent agencies operating on their own, to prevent and end homelessness. We anticipate this Count will collect more specific demographic information that will help us strengthen our existing programs.”

In the coming weeks, the data that these volunteers collected will be analyzed by an expert consultant who will create the 2014 report. As soon as this data is published it will be shared with the public.
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