TAMPA, Fla. (Friday, May 17, 2013) – At a press conference this morning, the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County released the results of the 2013 homeless count which showed 2,275 literally homeless people living in Hillsborough County, a 47 percent decline from 2011.  The magnitude of the decrease prompted a re-count in April, which confirmed the earlier results. The decrease is attributed to new programs introduced since 2011, the improving economy, and undercounting due to holding the count the Thursday before Gasparilla and the refusal of numerous homeless individuals to participate in a lengthy survey.  In the future, with a waiver from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the count will be done annually during the last 10 days of February, an abbreviated survey will be used and individuals will be counted even if they do not answer the survey.

Of the 2,275 literally homeless people counted,

• 944 were living on the streets or other places not meant for human habitation,
• 387 were residing in emergency shelters,
• 578 were residing in transitional housing, and
• 366 were reported in jail, having been homeless prior to their incarceration.

Another 12,843 are precariously housed, living doubled up with family or friends and/or in motels due to economic factors that prevent them for maintaining their own housing.

“The count data shows we, as a community, are moving in the right direction, but it is impossible to tell how much of the decrease represents real progress and how much is due to undercounting” said Maria Barcus, chief executive officer of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.  “ I feel the 2014 homeless count will provide a better understanding and assessment of the community’s path to end homelessness.”

Barcus also noted the 35 percent decrease in the number of homeless people in jail the day of the count, is a direct result of homeless liaison officers established by both the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and Tampa Police Department.  These officers’ main purpose is to connect homeless people to resources and services in lieu of arresting them for ordinance violations.

As mentioned above, since 2011, three new federally-funded programs were initiated in Hillsborough County.  Through these homeless prevention and rapid rehousing assistance programs, two of which are specifically for veterans, more than 1,900 people were assisted - 1,338 people received prevention assistance, and 621 people received rapid rehousing assistance - between the 2011 and 2013 homeless counts.  The new programs are the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration project (VHPD), funded HUD, the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) funded by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), and HUD’s Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP), which ended in September 2012, though the vast majority of funds were expended in early 2012.

At the same time, the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program (VASH) received an increase of 300 housing vouchers to provide permanent housing to homeless veteran households, resulting in an additional 410 homeless veteran and their household members to be housed.

Rapid Re-housing is a national best practice that offers temporary assistance, both financial assistance and supportive services, to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness move quickly into permanent housing. The fundamental principle is that when people are stably housed, everything else in their lives stabilizes and /or the household is better able to engage in the assistance needed for long-term success.  Homeless prevention programs are aimed at providing short-term supportive services and financial assistance to stabilize households already living in permanent housing to prevent them from becoming part of tomorrow’s homeless population.  The HPRP program ended September 2012, and other HUD and community resources are expected to continue these activities.

With the release of the 2013 numbers, Barcus stated that the data from the 2011 and 2009 counts was also reviewed, and adjusted based on new information received from Hillsborough County Public Schools  showing that the children they reported as “homeless” were mostly in the “doubled-up” category.  Without individual identifying information, it is not possible to determine if a child was already counted by another source.  Therefore, the number of school children will be tracked but not aggregated with other data.  The 2009 and 2011 figures were adjusted accordingly (see chart).

The recount number was slightly lower than the January number; however taking into account that the recount was completed over a four-hour period, instead of the 19-hours in January, the shorten window for planning, and fewer volunteer it is statistically reasonable to have a slightly lower results.  Typically the Homeless Coalition begins planning the count at least six months prior to the day of the count.

“Homeless counts always represent an undercount, as it is not possible to locate every homeless person, especially those who are unsheltered, in a single day,” said Barcus.  “However the count numbers are the best way to get an understanding of homelessness in our community, and provide data needed to expand and development new housing and services programs.”

According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty’s March 2013 article, Annual Homeless Count Doesn’t Tell The Whole Story, a homeless count “is just an estimate of the number of homeless people.  No method of counting homeless persons, particularly those who live outside, hiding in the shadows, could possibly be perfect.”

The number of people precariously housed rose 23 percent from 10,419 in 2011 to 12,843 in 2013.  While not literally homeless, these individuals and households are at high risk of becoming literally homeless, and therefore knowing this data can help the community plan accordingly for what may be coming down the road.