Transcript Counting the Homeless: Enhanced methods for enumeration of homeless persons Catherine Troisi, Ph.

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
30 October 2012
Stephen Williams, MEd, MPA
Houston Department of Health
and Human Services
Presenter Disclosures
Catherine L. Troisi, Ph.D.
The following personal financial relationships with
commercial interests relevant to this presentation
existed during the past 12 months:
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
5
Cities that Fit into Houston & ETJ
Comparison
From: Knudson,LP www.knudsonlp.com
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
Community Engagement
Stand Up and Be Counted Corps
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
More Information
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 909
Houston, Texas 77030
(713) 500-9164
[email protected]