Counting the Homeless: Enhanced methods for enumeration of homeless persons Catherine Troisi, Ph. D U Texas School of Public Health Ritalinda Lee, Ph.D. Claris Technical Services Gary M. Grier, JD Coalition For The Homeless of Houston/Harris County Stephen Williams, MEd, MPA Houston Department of Health and Human Services 30 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

New/Enhanced Methodologies Employed  Joint effort between academia and community  Community engagement  Incident Command Structure  Specialized Outreach Teams  Practice count and two PIT counts  More staging areas  Just-in-Time training  Multi-disciplinary surface teams  Frequent check-in on night of the Count  Plant and Capture method  SWAT teams  GIS mapping systems

Joint Effort  Enumerator – UTSPH  Incident Commanders – CFTH and UTSPH  Section Chiefs – HDHHS and CFTH  Incident Command Center– HDHHS  Team Captains – service providers  Specialized Outreach Teams – service providers  Surface teams – service providers, homeless or formerly homeless, community members, students  Next day surveys – students, service providers

Community Engagement  Continuum of Care housing providers  Service Providers  Consumers, CAC, and Corps  Schools  Faith based community  Specialized outreach teams  Special sub-populations  Citizen Corps  Student groups  Public officials  Citizen groups and organizations  Citizen’s Net

Community Engagement

Stand up and be Counted Corps  Pilot project funded by United Way for 2012  25 homeless or formerly homeless persons  Develop training methodology on how to determine who is homeless and engage appropriately  Map and strategize on homeless hot spots  Guide the community on homeless issues  Homeless Guides with Surface and Specialized teams  Consumer 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 specialists  16 teams made up of service providers  Sub-population specialists  Utilized Corps members and peer interviews  Off 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 undercount  Homeless or formerly homeless veterans sent out as “plants” for duration of count  Distinguishing item given – blinker; glow in the dark hat  Assigned to areas based on prevalence of homelessness in that area  Enumeration 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 data  Housing inventory count  Utilize expanded CoC including faith based programs  Self report HIC plus HMIS cross reference  Collect data on multiple nights  Subpopulation data acquired  Site visit  Confirmation

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

(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 909 Houston, Texas (713) More Information

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