Every January thousands of volunteers and outreach workers across the country count the nation’s homeless. This Point-In-Time (PIT) count is conducted for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and is meant to be a snapshot of America’s homeless population on one night in America.
In most parts of the US, the PIT count involves walking around all night counting people sleeping in highway or railroad underpasses, in parks, in abandoned buildings, in vehicles, or other locations that weren’t designed to provide living conditions. Last year more than 48,000 homeless people were counted in Los Angeles County alone.
In the Nebraska Panhandle this count is happening on Wednesday, January 27. HUD wants to know how many people were homeless on the night of January 26, 2021. We don’t have any homeless shelters or areas where street people congregate, so outreach workers have to be more creative in their counting methods.
In Box Butte County patrons of the Community Table at the Masonic Center will be asked where they slept last night. Chadron will be surveying people at the Closer to Home soup kitchen. Scottsbluff will have a special evening meal from 4:00 – 7:00 at the Knights Hall. They will also be providing many of the items Box Butte County has available with our Christmas boxes, things like hats, gloves, coats, and blankets.
If any people fit the HUD definition of homeless, outreach workers will spend more time with them asking a series of questions to determine which programs can provide assistance. Workers are also interested in providing services to those who are at risk or are living in temporary housing situations.
More than half a million Americans are homeless. Some are veterans. Some are youth, runaways. Some are families. Some are homeless for a few days while others are homeless for years. Native Americans and Pacific Islanders are most likely to be homeless in America when compared to all other racial/ethnic groups.
Homelessness can be caused by mental illness, family violence, inability to find work, drug/alcohol addiction, physical health issues, or any number of reasons. In many areas homelessness exists because housing is unaffordable.
For the PIT count, HUD is only looking for people who live on the streets. In our area in January, people simply cannot survive if they are living outside. In the Panhandle the PIT count is generally in single digits. Community service providers are critical of the inaccuracy of the PIT count for our area because it is done in January and not July. We certainly have homeless people!
The Nebraska PIT count from January, 2019 (most recent available online) shows 2365 homeless people, 1894 homeless households. By far the largest groups were the severely mentally ill and chronic substance abusers, with over 500 of each. Victims of domestic violence, veterans, and unaccompanied youth numbers were also in triple digits. Most of the homeless lived in Omaha or Lincoln.
The annual HUD Point-In-Time survey involves more than simply counting people. It also involves asking those who are homeless a long list of questions so service providers know what types of help they need. Even though the homeless are undercounted in the Panhandle, we are fortunate to have agencies and organizations who can provide assistance.