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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Homeless Count +

Well it’s that time of year again for the annual homeless count where a point in time count of the area homeless population is taken. This count is necessary for federal funding of homeless programs, grants and other federal assistance. The counting of the people in the shelters is relatively easy as the count takes place after check-in time or curfew. The hard part of the count is locating, waking them up (the count takes place generally between 9pm and 1am) and then filling out a questionnaire on each camper found or if the person is unwilling, just count him or her.

Locating camps in the dark and often in an unfamiliar part of town is a huge problem for those who will be doing the count. Some camps are so well hidden that it would be difficult to locate them even in the daylight. On top of that, the weather is predicted to be cold with freezing rain which means that the survey teams will be less likely to search for the camps very hard.

The idea of having the count done at this time of year is that it is thought that most people who do not normally go to the shelters will do so that night. Especially during bad weather. So all in all with the weather, the uncertainty of going into certain areas and just plain being uncomfortable will mean that the people doing the count will miss the unsheltered homeless people who are still out and will not be counted. That’s just the way it is.

Now on to a slightly different topic.

Over this past year I have noticed an increase in the number of camps. For example, in the area where my camp once was there has been 1000% increase in the number of people. From 2 or 3 people to over 30. Other areas that I see or visit are showing similar increases. Now some of this is because other camps have been closed down and those people just moved, but overall I do see an increase in the unsheltered homeless population.

With the three major homeless shelters running at or near capacity, living in a tent encampment is probably the only realistic option for many people. Also the shelter rules, crowding and just plain discomfort with living in a shelter makes a camp look pretty good.

In the past I’ve mentioned micro or tiny home communities for homeless people as one option to get folks into housing and to help the overcrowding situation in the shelters. The other day I ran into another option a major city is looking to implement in order to assist the homeless people “right now”. What they are proposing is to establish 3 camp areas with appropriate services, such as those found in any basic campground that will accommodate up to 100 camps in each area. The catch is that each area must be managed by a church group or other responsible sponsor and certain rules of behavior will have to be maintained by the residents.

I like this option. Not only will it help the overcrowding in the shelters if done correctly, setting up legal encampments with appropriate services will go a long way to ease the problem of illegal camps and the mess that tends to accompany them.

With the amount of wooded or open land within the Ft Worth city limits, setting up several managed encampments would be fairly easy, relatively cheap especially when you consider the money spent by the city doing illegal camp clean up and finally much safer in terms of health and physical security for the residents.