Point In Time Count

The federal government, in order to receive federal funds, requires communities across the country to count the number of people who are homeless. This occurred Wednesday, January 24, 2007. Wednesday night, I went out with one of the five teams in Raleigh. It is always a humbling experience to talk with these folks who are homeless and listen to their stories. Three of those I talked directly to were between 23 and 25. One young man and woman had been on the streets the last six months. They were a couple who did not want to be separated and chose to be on the streets instead. The other 25 year old young man had been on the streets off and on for five years. His current means of transportation was a bicycle with a flat rear tire.

Later in the evening we met a couple of guys that were in a camp. They were chronically homeless, drunk and trying to stay warm next to the fire they had. So often we are quick to blame these individuals for their current state, making assumptions that the system of mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and physcial health care were adequate and assessible to enough to meet the needs of these two gentlemen.

I was also struck by the number of places we came across that were clearly where people were staying, but they were not "at home" when we went by. This is the problem with trying to count those on the street who are homeless in one evening; you undercount the number of people.

Triangle United Way will be hosting a regional press conference on February 13 at 3 pm at Highland Village in Cary, NC. The press conference will release the numbers, including the trends we have seen over the last few years, of people who are counted during the Point In Time Count