Future???

We've just had the Homeless Point in Time count for Ft Worth last night.

Just a heads up guys, since I retired I have been technically homeless this past year. Just for fun I camped out last night in a relatively open spot that was extremely easy to get to ( less than 200 feet off of Riverside) and nobody showed up. I even stayed up to see if a team even showed up nearby. But either I didn't see them or they missed me. In fact during the 10+ years that I was homeless I was counted only twice.

I do have to give the teams credit and a congratulations for finding the people that they did find though. I know that it is extremely uncomfortable for some people to go into an unknown patch of woods looking for a camp. Even during the daylight hours some camps are difficult to locate.

In the past I have commented about the ultimate numbers of unsheltered homeless that are published for the Ft Worth area. About 5 or 6 years ago the published number of unsheltered homeless was listed as 348. Keep in mind that these are all the campers, the people who are living under bridges and in abandoned buildings within Tarrant County. I knew for a fact that there were over 150 unsheltered people living withing a short walking distance of the camp I lived in at the time. If I was to guess, the true number of unsheltered homeless at that time was probably closer to 600 people county wide.

Today with the increases in the numbers of homeless who are living in or cycling through the homeless shelter system what do you think is happening to the numbers of unsheltered homeless? Guesses anyone? They certainly aren't getting smaller.

The numbers developed by the Point in Time count will be used to determine such things as the funding provided to the shelters, funding to provide housing for those who have risen to the top of the waiting lists and other purposes. The unfortunate part in all of this is that the unsheltered homeless people just fall through the cracks. First because many of them are not noticed like the people living in the shelters. Then they don't get counted. Finally the outreach teams such as Tarrant County Hands of Hope, who in many ways are the only people even trying to help those homeless people, are extremely limited in the resources they have available to assist those homeless people they serve. Not to mention that the outreach teams are constantly finding new people to help and haven't found them all.

Today I would estimate that there are over 700 unsheltered homeless people in the Ft Worth and Tarrant County area. Most of whom do not get counted. On top of that, the bulk of any funding available is awarded to the homeless shelters with little or nothing made available to the outreach teams to assist those they serve.

I realize that total funding from all sources both public and private is limited. Just keep in mind that the unsheltered homeless are out there too and the outreach teams need financial assistance to help them.