Counting the Homeless: Enhanced methods for enumeration of homeless persons

1. Counting the Homeless: Enhanced methods for enumeration of homeless persons Catherine Troisi, Ph. D U Texas School of Public Health Ritalinda Lee, Ph.D. Claris Technical Services Gary M. Grier, JD Coalition For The Homeless of Houston/Harris County Stephen Williams, MEd, MPA Houston Department of Health and Human Services 30 October 2012

2. Presenter Disclosures Catherine L. Troisi, Ph.D. No relationships to disclose The following personal financial relationships with commercial interests relevant to this presentation existed during the past 12 months:

3. Learning Objectives • Describe the Incident Command System (ICS) • Discuss how ICS and other methods can be used to build collaboration among community members, academics, health dept personnel, and providers of services to the homeless community • Explain how ICS can be applied to the enumeration of homeless persons • Discuss other methods for improving the PIT count of persons experiencing homelessness

4. Federally mandated count of homeless taking place during last 10 days of January • Street Count and Sheltered Count • Also must enumerate HUD-defined subpopulations • Canvass all of Houston/Harris County/Fort Bend County • Previous enumerations were not thought to be optimal • New/enhanced methodologies employed in 2011, tweaked in 2012 Enumeration

5. Cities that Fit into Houston & ETJ Comparison From: Knudson,LP www.knudsonlp.com

6. New/Enhanced Methodologies Employed • Joint effort between academia and community • Community engagement • Incident Command Structure • Specialized Outreach Teams • Practice count and two PIT counts • More staging areas • Just-in-Time training • Multi-disciplinary surface teams • Frequent check-in on night of the Count • Plant and Capture method • SWAT teams • GIS mapping systems

7. Joint Effort • Enumerator – UTSPH • Incident Commanders – CFTH and UTSPH • Section Chiefs – HDHHS and CFTH • Incident Command Center– HDHHS • Team Captains – service providers • Specialized Outreach Teams – service providers • Surface teams – service providers, homeless or formerly homeless, community members, students • Next day surveys – students, service providers

8. Community Engagement • Continuum of Care housing providers • Service Providers • Consumers, CAC, and Corps • Schools • Faith based community • Specialized outreach teams • Special sub-populations • Citizen Corps • Student groups • Public officials • Citizen groups and organizations • Citizen’s Net

9. Community Engagement

10. Stand up and be Counted Corps • Pilot project funded by United Way for 2012 • 25 homeless or formerly homeless persons • Develop training methodology on how to determine who is homeless and engage appropriately • Map and strategize on homeless hot spots • Guide the community on homeless issues • Homeless Guides with Surface and Specialized teams • Consumer Advisory Council

11. Community Engagement Stand Up and Be Counted Corps

12. Incident Command Structure • Incident Command Structure (ICS) for PIT observational/ hard count

13. Surface teams • 9 staging areas – Houston/Harris Co/Ft. Bend Co/Baytown • 29 study areas subdivided • 80 teams • Each car had: • Driver • Navigator • Homeless or formerly homeless person • Recorder • GPS application to record geo-coordinates & zip code mapping

14. Outreach specialists • 16 teams made up of service providers • Sub-population specialists • Utilized Corps members and peer interviews • Off surface surveillance (encampments, under bridges, etc) • Interviews and engagement

15. SWAT Teams • Experienced Health Workers familiar with area • Teams in the “bullpen” at ICS Headquarters • Team captains could request their help, if needed • Assured all areas were covered

16. Method of determining undercount Homeless or formerly homeless veterans sent out as “plants” for duration of count Distinguishing item given – blinker; glow in the dark hat Assigned to areas based on prevalence of homelessness in that area Enumeration teams recorded when they observed a plant (“capture”) Good in theory; still working out kinks in practice Plant and Capture

17. 2,600 square miles of Houston Harris County/Fort Bend County

19. Shelter Count and HMIS data • Housing inventory count • Utilize expanded CoC including faith based programs • Self report HIC plus HMIS cross reference • Collect data on multiple nights • Subpopulation data acquired • Site visit • Confirmation

20. HUD mandates enumeration of veterans, chronically homeless, and chronically homeless families (sheltered and street) HIV +, domestic violence, severe mental illness, chronic substance abuse, unaccompanied children (shelter only) Sheltered HMIS Street count Specialized outreach teams Next day surveys Day shelters Food service providers Subpopulation data

22. More Information • http://www.homelesshouston.org/hh/Community_Resources.asp • (PIT executive summary and needs assessment documents can be found here) • Or contact : • Catherine Troisi, Ph.D. • University of Texas School of Public Health • 1200 Herman Pressler Dr, Ste 909 • Houston, Texas 77030 • (713) 500-9164 • catherine.l.troisi@uth.tmc.edu