State of Indiana 2010 Point-In-Time (PIT) Homeless Count January 27, 2010 Indiana Housing and Community Development Au

1. State of Indiana 2010 Point-In-Time (PIT) Homeless CountJanuary 27, 2010Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority

2. IHCDA Point-in-Time contacts

3. PIT Count 2010: Jan. 27 Purpose: • To understand the scope and characteristics of homeless individuals and families in your community and state. To achieve our fair share of McKinney-Vento funds. • Required for McKinney Vento Balance of State application • Required for State Emergency Shelter Grant recipients Components of PIT Count: • Sheltered count • Shelters & TH using HMIS • Shelters & TH not using HMIS • Unsheltered count • Service-based locations (food pantries, trustee offices, etc.) • Public Places/ Street count

4. Homeless definition An unshelteredhomeless person resides in a place not meant for human habitation: • Such as cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings, streets, parks, etc. A sheltered homeless person resides in: • Emergency shelters. Includes temporary emergency weather shelters and domestic violence shelters. • Transitional housing (for homeless persons who originally came from the streets or emergency shelters). • Residential programs for runaway/homeless youth (not foster care or government funded youth programs) • Hotel, motel, or apartment voucher arrangements paid by a public or private agency because the person or family is homeless

5. Sheltered Count: Exclusions • Precariously housed- people on the edge of becoming homeless. (Ex. doubled up in conventional housing or paying very high % of income towards rent) • Formerly homeless persons living in Section 8 SRO, Shelter Plus Care, SHP permanent housing or other permanent housing units • Children or youth, who because of their own or a parent’s homelessness or abandonment now reside temporarily in hospitals, residential treatment facilities, emergency foster care, or detention facilities • Adults in mental health facilities, chemical dependency facilities, or criminal justice facilities

6. 2009 Summary of Point-in-time count • Three separate surveys- too much information gathered • Data collection & entry too lengthy and complex • Poor weather • Inconsistent data collection methods among regions

7. 2010 PIT changes: Keep it simple • Every region does service-based count. Street count if applicable • Use HMIS for all data entry (except for DV shelters) • Only 1 survey, basic information requested • COC’s complete their own data entry • 2 Webinar volunteer trainings provided by IHCDA in mid-Jan.: • Jan. 20, 1-3pm: HMIS data entry volunteers • Jan. 18, 3-5pm: Survey volunteers training

8. Timeline- planning • Other: • Secure participant incentives- backpacks, blankets, toiletries • Make sure all counties in region are counted

9. Sheltered Count: Housing Inventory Chart • Only contact shelters listed on Housing Inventory chart sent by IHCDA. DO NOT ADD TO THIS CHART without contacting IHCDA first! • Contact all shelters on list by Dec. 31st. Confirm participation. Note contact person, address, phone and e-mail. • You will use this list to confirm all surveys accounted for. Will return final participating location list to IHCDA by Feb. 3rd.

10. Sheltered Count: HMIS All sheltered count data will be entered into HMIS by “Data Entry Volunteers” who will be designated by your Continuum of Care. Programs that currently use HMIS: Programs that currently use HMIS have it simple. Make sure your data is accurate and you’ll be prepared for the Point In Time Count. • Prior to January 27th, run Demographics Reports to make sure that your data is up-to-date and accurate. • Make sure any clients who are no longer residing at your facility have been discharged. • Make sure all data about clients who stayed at your shelter on 1/27 is entered into HMIS by 1/29.

11. Sheltered Count: HMIS Programs that do not currently use HMIS: • Volunteers or shelter staff will complete paper surveys. These surveys need to be filled out for every family that comes to the shelter. One survey per family. Surveys returned to COC PIT contact. • COC needs to designate “Data Entry Volunteers” who will be responsible for entering this data into HMIS. These Data Entry Volunteers will need to fill out a modified Code of Ethics and fax it to IHCDA by January 11th so that we know who needs access to HMIS and for which shelters. Ideally these volunteers will already be familiar with HMIS, however training will be held for ALL users on January 20th. • The data that is collected from non-participating shelters will be not be shared with other HMIS programs and will only be used for the Point In Time Count. If a shelter wants to begin using HMIS on a regular basis we can train their staff and provide logins for no charge.

12. Sheltered Count: DV Programs Domestic Violence Programs Victims of domestic violence do meet HUD’s definition of Literally Homeless and should be included in the Point In Time count. Domestic Violence programs are prohibited from entering data into HMIS due to the Violence Against Women Act of 2005. Paper surveys will be given to the staff at domestic violence programs. Data entry: The staff at the domestic violence programs (or a designated COC Data Entry Volunteer) will be responsible for entering their surveys into a Survey Monkey account. Because of the sensitive nature of their data no personally identifiable data will be collected, so it is important that DV staff screen the clients to make sure they have not already filled out a survey.

13. Unsheltered count: Why ? • Estimated 1/3 to ¼ of adult homeless population are unsheltered • Find out how many homeless don’t use shelters & where they live • Provides good data on chronically homeless* • Find out what they need and will accept to end their homelessness • Your opportunity to prove that unsheltered homeless people exist in your community!

14. Who is chronically homeless? HUD’s definition of chronic homelessness is: An unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more OR has had at least four (4) episodes of homelessness in the past three (3) years. To be considered chronically homeless, persons must have been sleeping in a place not meant for human habitation (e.g., living on the streets) and/or in emergency shelter during that time. HUD’s definition of an episode of homeless is: A separate, distinct, and sustained stay on the streets and/or in an emergency homeless shelter. Note that HUD’s definition of chronic homelessness does not include families. In addition, to be identified as chronically homeless, an individual must have a disabling condition, defined as follows: A diagnosable substance use disorder, serious mental illness, developmental disability, or chronic physical illness or disability, including the co-occurrence of two or more of these conditions. A disabling condition limits an individual’s ability to work or perform one or more activities of daily living.

15. Unsheltered count: developing a plan Two Types: • Service-based locations* • Public Places When to conduct count? Consider overlap, duplication, key intercept points. Who to count – know homeless definitions

16. Unsheltered Count: Public Places Who to Count? Count all adults, children and unaccompanied youth sleeping in places not meant for human habitation, which include: Streets, parks, alleys, parking ramps, under bridges, all night commercial establishments (movie theaters, laundromats, restaurants), abandoned buildings, building roofs or stairwells, chicken coops and other farm outbuildings, bus stations, caves, campgrounds, vehicles, etc. Where to Find Them? • Solicit input from PATH/ACT outreach teams, police dep’t, etc. • Ask interviewed person to identify other locations (snowball effect)

17. Unsheltered count: Service-based locations • All COC’s are required to do a service-based count • Service-based count is a good way to capture people not found in obvious places in street count • If an area is conducive for a street count can do a combination of both public places & service-based count. Be mindful of duplication Ex.’s: Trustee offices,soup kitchens, food pantries, emergency rooms, day shelters, outreach programs, libraries, day centers, community centers, community health clinics, community mental health centers, jails & police stations, day labor sites, clothing programs, warming centers, community action agencies, TANF offices, Social Security offices, drop-in centers, employment centers, churches, schools, housing offices, detox, psychiatric/addiction treatment centers, etc.

18. Unsheltered Count: Minimizing Duplication • Survey • 1st Question for Unsheltered only: “Have you been asked these questions today?” • Name, DOB, SSN, initials • Clearly specify and assign boundaries of surveyors in advance • Coordinate timing of locations; determine intercept points in your communities

19. Unsheltered count Unsheltered count example Ft. Wayne, Region 3 Jaime Martin, Vincent Village

20. UnSheltered Count: HMIS • All the paper surveys collected during the unsheltered count will be entered into HMIS by the Data Entry Volunteers designated by the Continuum of Care. • Data Entry Volunteers must fill out a modified Code of Ethics and fax it to IHCDA by January 11th so we know who needs access to HMIS. Ideally these volunteers will already be familiar with HMIS, however training will be held for ALL users on January 20th. • Before entering data into HMIS check to see if the client’s information has already been entered using Client Lookup. • The data that is collected from the Unsheltered Count will be not be shared with other HMIS programs and will only be used for the Point In Time Count.

21. Unsheltered Count: Recruiting Volunteers Where can I find volunteers? • PATH & ACT Teams –mental health outreach teams. • Consider using formerly homeless people to conduct public places count • Representatives from social service agencies • Community members, University social work students Primary need for volunteers: • Coordinating/planning volunteers • Data entry volunteers • Day of count survey volunteers – • Service –based locations • Street count and • Shelters (non-HMIS shelters only)

22. Volunteer recruitment- other considerations Recruit enough people to go out in teams of two or more. Do not send alone. Pair experienced person w/ less experienced. Determine where volunteers are needed and assign all volunteers in advance of count. Consider developing uniform identification badge/name tag visible to count participants Survey volunteers – Attend Webinar Training on Jan. 18, 3-5pm Data entry volunteers- Attend Webinar Training on Jan. 20, 1-3pm

23. Survey Will be posted online with all PIT info. and documents http://www.in.gov/ihcda/3120.htm#PIT Data entry must be complete by February 19, 2010 in order to be counted. This allows each Continuum three weeks to enter data.

24. Questions? *1 to unmute your phone Thank you!