2012 Summer Enhanced PIT Count

1. 2012 Summer Enhanced PIT Count Revised 06/21/12

2. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Who are we? • WVCEH – WV Coalition to End Homelessness • CoC – Continuum of Care • BoS – Balance of State • HUD – Department of Housing and Urban Development http://wvendhomelessness.org/

3. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Balance of State Continuum of Care http://wvendhomelessness.org/

4. 2012 Summer PIT Count • What is the PIT? • One-night count of all sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons across the country that occurs in the last 10 days of January every year. • Sheltered – anyone residing in an emergency or transitional shelter or receiving HPRP funds for homeless assistance. • Unsheltered – anyone residing in a place not meant for human habitation • Tent, campground, woods, street • Abandoned building • Home without utilities or running water • Being evicted within 7 days and has not secured housing nor resources to secure housing http://wvendhomelessness.org/

5. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Why do we do the PIT? • HUD uses data from the PIT Count to decide how much money is allocated to homeless assistance programs. • Your community can use the data for planning purposes, grant applications and program design. • WVCEH/Balance of State CoC uses PIT Data to target CoC funding for Supportive Housing Programs through HUD, advocacy to state and federal policy makers, and providing information for State-wide planning of services that may also serve the homeless. http://wvendhomelessness.org/

6. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Who should participate in the Count? • Everyone who serves or meets persons who may be unstably housed or homeless • FRNs, Police/Sherriff Departments, Community Action Agencies, DHHR, Faith-based Community, food pantries, Emergency Rooms, State Forest and National Forest personnel, http://wvendhomelessness.org/

7. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Why did we choose to do a Summer Count? • Historically little to no data collection across rural areas. • There are many services in rural areas that we do not know about and do not know about the count and it’s purposes • 31% participation across the CoC in the 2012 January Count. • We made assumptions on the number of homeless in 2012 in 30 of our 44 counties in the Balance of State http://wvendhomelessness.org/

8. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Example of an “Assumption” • No data received from Preston County, which has a population of 33520, is rural but close to a larger metropolitan area • Data received from Mercer County, which has a higher population (62264), but did a good count in their more rural areas which are close to the metropolitan area of Bluefield. • Population of non-reporting county Variance in Number reported homeless NUMBER TO REPORT IN • population in reporting county NON-REPORTING COUNTY • Population of similar reporting county • Does this seem reliable? Do you want to be provided data that has been derived this way to present to your funders? http://wvendhomelessness.org/

9. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Goals of the Summer Count: • to strengthen relationships with community stakeholders around the issue of homelessness • to test the quality of the data generated by expanding the stakeholders who participate in the Point In Time study • to expand data collection opportunities to those stakeholders who serve homeless people who are not captured by traditional data collection methods http://wvendhomelessness.org/

10. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Methodology of the Summer Count • The study team will target 24 West Virginia counties within the Continuum of Care (CoC) service area for data collection. These counties represent 54% of the total counties serviced within the CoC (covering 44 WV counties). Additionally, counties selected for inclusion match the rural/urban demographic of the Continuum’s service area. The breakdown includes 7 counties that are urban in nature. Urban is defined as populations of 15,000 or greater. It also includes 7 counties that are identified as extremely rural. Extremely rural is defined as populations less than 9,000. The remaining 10 counties have populations between 9,000 and 14,000 people. This represents a distribution of 29% urban counties and 71% rural counties, which is similar to the distribution of all 44 counties in the catchment area. http://wvendhomelessness.org/

11. 2012 Summer PIT Count • The Summer Survey • Data collection over 1 1/2 week time frame, not just 24 hours • Simple survey – 5 questions • Capturing those who are precariously, or unstably, housed • Summer PIT Count Survey Form http://wvendhomelessness.org/

12. 2012 Summer PIT Count • What we need • Communication about the Summer Count with stakeholders who encounter the homeless • Facilitation and getting the survey out and collected during and after the data collection period • What we can provide • Possible financial assistance for your community to plan a Summer PIT Outreach event (soup/sandwich event, community resource fair, gas vouchers for volunteers to search for unsheltered, etc.) • Data to your community after the count http://wvendhomelessness.org/

13. 2012 Summer PIT Count • Questions? http://wvendhomelessness.org/

14. 2012 Summer PIT Count Amanda Sisson HMIS Data Coordinator/Trainer Administrative Officer amandasisson@wvceh.org • WV Balance of State Continuum of Care/WVCEH • 160 John Street • Weston, WV 26452 • 304-269-8600 http://wvendhomelessness.org/