Homelessness hard to gauge

How groups count can vary

NWA Media/MICHAEL WOODS  --01/31/2013-- Kristin Kelly, a volunteer with the University of Arkansas, talks to a homeless couple Thursday morning at the Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville during the churches community meals lunch.  Kelly was one of many volunteers collecting statistics on the homeless population in Northwest Arkansas.  University of Arkansas professor Kevin Fitzpatrick,  with the Community and Family Institute, organized a group of volunteers to conduct this year’s count. The updated count will be taken over a 24-hour period Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in more than two dozen locations across Washington and Benton counties.
NWA Media/MICHAEL WOODS --01/31/2013-- Kristin Kelly, a volunteer with the University of Arkansas, talks to a homeless couple Thursday morning at the Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville during the churches community meals lunch. Kelly was one of many volunteers collecting statistics on the homeless population in Northwest Arkansas. University of Arkansas professor Kevin Fitzpatrick, with the Community and Family Institute, organized a group of volunteers to conduct this year’s count. The updated count will be taken over a 24-hour period Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in more than two dozen locations across Washington and Benton counties.

— Vicki White’s 19-year-old daughter, Samantha, is pregnant with twins. If the babies’ daddy, James Pool, 28, doesn’t find a job soon, the pair could be moving into Vicki White’s two-bedroom apartment in Springdale.

“Right now we don’t have jobs,” Samantha White said, but both she and Pool want to go to college to become certified nursing assistants. Samantha has to get her GED first.

“I’m living with her, actually,” she said, gesturing toher mother, who made an exception and let Pool stay overnight with her daughter Wednesday night.

The young couple does not consider themselves homeless as long as they have a place to stay. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t count people like White and Pool as homeless either, but a group performing a federal count Thursday also gathered information about the couple for a University of Arkansas professor’s research. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the homeless censusfor agencies in the area to qualify for grants that help pay for homeless services.

HUD defines homeless as:

People who are living in a place not meant for human habitation, in an emergency shelter, in transitional housing or who are exiting an institution where they temporarily resided.

People who are losing their primary nighttime residence, which may include a motel or friend’s residence, within 14 days and lack resources or support networks to remain in housing.

Families with children or unaccompanied youth who are without stable housing and likely to continue in that state.

People who are fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, have no other residence and lack the resources or support networks to obtain permanent housing.

White and Pool were interviewed Thursday as part of the 2013 Northwest Arkansas Pointin-Time Homeless Census, a biennial head count organized by the University of Arkansas’ Community and Family Institute. About 70 service providers, social workers, students and other volunteers scouted for homeless where they congregate, such as the regular Thursday Community Meals program at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville.

As the homeless and hungry in stocking caps and backpacks filled in the church’s activity center for chili dogs, baked beans and potatoes, UA student Kristin Kelley and others grabbed as many as they could to ask a list of basic questions. The whole process took less than five minutes per person.

The institute’s count is conducted in 25 to 27 places in Washington and Benton counties. It’s done in the winter when more homeless are likely to be seeking services and can be counted, said Kevin Fitzpatrick, the institute’s director.

“I think we get our best snapshot when it’s cold like this,” he said.

Fitzpatrick reports numbers to HUD as part of the census. He also compiles a more comprehensive review that includes people HUD doesn’t count.

In 2011, Fitzpatrick recorded 549 homeless for the HUD report and 2,001 in the institute’s study.

The institute’s numbers are higher because it casts a widernet in terms of the habits and characteristics of homeless.

New this year for his research are some interview questions on health and dental care and prescription drugs, he said.

“We really want to focus on the service gaps. Where are the gaps in terms of what people need?” Fitzpatrick added.

Though his methodology for counting homeless is different from HUD’s, the totals are “getting much closer,” he said. For the first time this year, HUD will include children in the count, something Fitzpatrick has done since 2007. Most of the larger school districts have personnel dedicated to coordinating resources for homeless students and their families. But smaller districts, such as Gentry, have teachers do it as part of their jobs, he said.

Fitzpatrick said the institute requires its volunteers to count children, while HUD only encourages it. The institute also tries to estimate the “invisible” homeless; those who don’t seek services. HUD does not, he said.

HUD traditionally counts homeless people by the numbers staying in shelters and doesn’t count those using soup kitchens, food pantries and day centers like the one at SevenHills Homeless Center, Fitzpatrick said.

Still, there’s a sector of homeless that won’t likely be captured by the 2013 count, Fitzpatrick said. Since the economic downturn that began around 2008, there’s a new body of homeless, he said.

“These are people who were working, had a place to stay, maybe had their own home and had health insurance,” he said. “With that economic crisis, something happened and it impacted them in a way that put them potentially on the street.”

The people he describes are not the kind to show up for a free meal, he said. They work full time, sometimes hold down more than one job, and their kids are in school, yet they’re bunking at their parents’ place, their grandparents’ or somewhere else.

“It’s really hard for us to see them, but they’re out there,” Fitzpatrick said. He believes there are at least twice as many homeless in the United States than reported by the government.

“It’s difficult to capture some elements of the population,” he said. “They’re either too proud or too busy. They don’t have time to reach out and get other services.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/01/2013

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