Counting the Homeless: Enhanced methods for enumeration of homeless persons

Catherine Troisi, Ph. DU Texas School of Public Health

Ritalinda Lee, Ph.D.Claris Technical Services

Gary M. Grier, JDCoalition For The Homeless of Houston/Harris County

Stephen Williams, MEd, MPAHouston Department of Health and Human Services30 October 2012

Presenter Disclosures

The following personal financial relationships with commercial interests relevant to this presentation existed during the past 12 months:

Catherine L. Troisi, Ph.D.

No relationships to disclose

Learning Objectives

Describe the Incident Command System (ICS)Discuss how ICS and other methods can be used to

build collaboration among community members, academics, health dept personnel, and providers of services to the homeless community

Explain how ICS can be applied to the enumeration of homeless persons

Discuss other methods for improving the PIT count of persons experiencing homelessness

Enumeration

Federally mandated count of homeless taking place during last 10 days of January

Street Count and Sheltered Count Also must enumerate HUD-defined subpopulations Canvass all of Houston/Harris County/Fort Bend

County Previous enumerations were not thought to be

optimal New/enhanced methodologies employed in 2011,

tweaked in 2012

Cities that Fit into Houston & ETJ Comparison

5

From: Knudson,LP www.knudsonlp.com

New/Enhanced Methodologies Employed

Joint effort between academia and communityCommunity engagement Incident Command StructureSpecialized Outreach TeamsPractice count and two PIT countsMore staging areasJust-in-Time trainingMulti-disciplinary surface teamsFrequent check-in on night of the CountPlant and Capture methodSWAT teamsGIS mapping systems

Joint Effort

Enumerator – UTSPH Incident Commanders – CFTH and UTSPHSection Chiefs – HDHHS and CFTH Incident Command Center– HDHHSTeam Captains – service providersSpecialized Outreach Teams – service providersSurface teams – service providers, homeless or

formerly homeless, community members, studentsNext day surveys – students, service providers

Community EngagementContinuum of Care housing providersService ProvidersConsumers, CAC, and CorpsSchoolsFaith based communitySpecialized outreach teams Special sub-populationsCitizen CorpsStudent groupsPublic officialsCitizen groups and organizationsCitizen’s Net

Community Engagement

Stand up and be Counted Corps

Pilot project funded by United Way for 201225 homeless or formerly homeless personsDevelop training methodology on how to

determine who is homeless and engage appropriately

Map and strategize on homeless hot spotsGuide the community on homeless issuesHomeless Guides with Surface and Specialized

teamsConsumer Advisory Council

Stand Up and Be Counted Corps

Community Engagement

Incident Command Structure

Incident Command Structure (ICS) for PIT observational/ hard count

Surface teams• 9 staging areas – Houston/Harris Co/Ft. Bend

Co/Baytown• 29 study areas subdivided• 80 teams• Each car had:

• Driver• Navigator• Homeless or formerly homeless person• Recorder

• GPS application to record geo-coordinates &

zip code mapping

Outreach specialists16 teams made up of service providersSub-population specialistsUtilized Corps members and peer interviewsOff surface surveillance (encampments, under

bridges, etc) Interviews and engagement

SWAT Teams

Experienced Health Workers familiar with area

Teams in the “bullpen” at ICS Headquarters

Team captains could request their help, if needed

Assured all areas were covered

Plant and Capture

Method of determining undercountHomeless or formerly homeless veterans sent

out as “plants” for duration of countDistinguishing item given – blinker; glow in the

dark hatAssigned to areas based on prevalence of

homelessness in that areaEnumeration teams recorded when they

observed a plant (“capture”)Good in theory; still working out kinks in

practice

2,600 square miles of Houston Harris County/Fort Bend County

Shelter Count and HMIS dataHousing inventory countUtilize expanded CoC including faith based

programsSelf report HIC plus HMIS cross referenceCollect data on multiple nightsSubpopulation data acquiredSite visitConfirmation

Subpopulation data

HUD mandates enumeration of veterans, chronically homeless, and chronically

homeless families (sheltered and street) HIV +, domestic violence, severe mental illness,

chronic substance abuse, unaccompanied children (shelter only)

Sheltered HMIS

Street count Specialized outreach teams Next day surveys

Day shelters Food service providers

http://www.homelesshouston.org/hh/Community_Resources.asp

(PIT executive summary and needs assessment documents can be found here)

Or contact :

Catherine Troisi, Ph.D. University of Texas School of Public Health

1200 Herman Pressler Dr, Ste 909Houston, Texas 77030

(713) 500-9164catherine.l.troisi@uth.tmc.edu

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