BETWEEN THE LINES: Making The Homeless Visible

Try counting something that is largely invisible.

That’s essentially what happens as Kevin Fitzpatrick, a University of Arkansas sociologist, and an army of helpers try to establish how many people in Northwest Arkansas are homeless.

The survey takes place over a 24-hour period every two years and was completed last week. Final numbers won’t be available for a while yet, but this year’s homeless count is expected to increase yet again.

Frighteningly, the growing count includes far too many children.

This biennial effort to identify the homeless continues to enlighten the region to the realities that face part of the local population.

As Fitzpatrick explains, volunteers attempt to drop a net over Northwest Arkansas to gather information about the area’s homeless during the survey. They do so by going where the homeless congregate: soup kitchens, day centers, shelters, clothing closets, wherever organizations directly serve the homeless. They also rely on information gathered through school districts, which all have programs to identify and help homeless children.

The survey is timed for late January when the homeless are most likely to look for help. Teams of volunteers seek them out and interview them to collect data that will in turn help the different service providers better understand what the homeless population needs.

The numbers are also necessary to help agencies qualify for federal grants to pay to deliver those services.

While this point-in-time census likely misses a lot of homeless people, it finds plenty of them in Northwest Arkansas.

This recent survey was the fourth for Fitzpatrick’s teams. In 2007, volunteers located 1,140 homeless. The number rose in 2009 to 1,287. By 2011, the count hit 2,001. This year’s number will be still higher.

What’s most significant, however, is how the homeless have changed.

As Fitzpatrick noted, many people have a stereotypical image of a homeless person, maybe some gruff-looking guy reeking of stale beer and needing a shower and shave.

That person was easier to ignore than some in today’s homeless population. Many people are homeless for the first time because of an economy that took their homes and jobs.

These newly homeless are younger, more “mainstream,” as Fitzpatrick said, and include many children.

He’s waiting for the final counts, but Fitzpatrick expects kids to make up more than half of this year’s homeless census in Northwest Arkansas. It’s a staggering number and a sign of a huge problem.

The largest concentration of homeless children in the two counties, believe it or not, is in the Bentonville School District. With so much going right economically in Benton County, that fact alone ought to shatter some myths about who is homeless and who is not.

To be listed as homeless doesn’t necessarily mean a person is literally on the street, camping in the woods or huddled in a cardboard shelter.

Some do live that way, but the federal definition of homelessness extends to a larger population.

Besides people living somewhere not meant for human habitation, those who are in an emergency shelter or some kind of transitional housing are counted. So are people who are in temporary residence, such as “doubling up” with family or friends.

Most children, Fitzpatrick said, are doubling up somewhere.

They have a place to stay even if they’ve lost their own homes. But some children actually go unsheltered in these two prosperous counties.

While it is hard to conjure up images of children when someone speaks of homelessness, they really are the emerging face of homelessness in Benton and Washington counties.

Thanks to this recent survey, maybe they’ll be just a little more visible to the rest of us.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.

Opinion, Pages 10 on 02/03/2013

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