The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) teamed up with two social services organizations in the Washington D.C. area to lead volunteers in the “Point in Time” (PIT) count, an annual surveying of regional homeless populations, on the night of January 26.
Pathways to Housing DC and the Community Partnership For the Prevention of Homelessness helped guide volunteers through the counting process, which was more complicated than ever thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Armored with masks, flashlights, snacks, and $20 Visa gift cards, volunteers were tasked with individually counting homeless individuals in the area.
HUD requires that Continuums of Care (CoC), which are groups across the U.S. dedicated to ending homelessness, conduct their regional PIT counts within the last 10 days of January each year. The goal is to quantify local homeless populations and measure progress and setbacks in an effort to help the estimated half a million people currently struggling with homelessness in this country.
On a national level, the Biden-Harris administration has made fighting homelessness a priority. President Biden’s “House America” initiative aims to use funds from the American Rescue Plan to build more housing for those experiencing homelessness.
HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge has spoken in the past about the importance of getting all Americans in housing to protect the economic well-being of individual communities and the country as a whole.
“It is a top priority not just of mine, but of the president and the vice president. One of the first things that they said to me was that we’re going to make homelessness, and the eradication of homelessness, a priority in this administration,” Fudge told NPR in an exclusive interview. “We want every single person, no matter their station, to find a way to get out of, not just off the streets, but even out of shelters.”
Alongside D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Secretary Fudge joined volunteers in counting efforts on the streets this year.
“Tonight @MayorBowser and I volunteered to help out with #PITcount2022 by surveying those experiencing homelessness in D.C.’s backyard.” she tweeted. “To #EndHomelessness, data is crucial. We can’t just talk the talk; we must walk the walk.”
Although the results of the 2022 PIT count have not yet been released, taking a look at data from past years can help gauge what we may expect to see down the line.
2021 PIT volunteers recorded a 32 percent decrease in the amount of homeless people in Washington D.C. since 2017, according to the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments (COG), a nonprofit organization made up of local elected officials working towards the development of solutions to the region’s biggest issues.
In the Washington Metropolitan region, the total amount of unsheltered individuals decreased by about 32 percent from 1,484 in 2017 to 1,005 in 2021. However, numbers have been on the rise in D.C. since 2018.
The PIT count looks at many different demographic factors: race, gender, age, employment status, educational background and more. Numbers from recent years show that the age distribution of homeless single individuals tends to skew older, while the age distribution of homeless people in families tends to skew younger.
Younger individuals in families can become homeless as a result of facing one or more traumatic events or experiences of major adversity in childhood, according to Doorways, a social services organization in Northern Virginia. Unplanned teen pregnancy, incidents of domestic violence or assault and struggles with substance abuse are possible life events that could lead to loss of a stable residence.
Sometimes referred to as the “invisible population,” getting a truly accurate count of unsheltered youth can also be challenging, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Young people may avoid adult intervention out of fear of the system, opting instead to couch surf with friends.
Racially, the 2021 PIT count found Black or African American individuals to be the population most affected by homelessness, with 75 percent of counted homeless single adults in the region identifying as Black or African American. That number is up 4 percent since 2017, while the number of white homeless single adults in the region is down 5 percent from 2017.
Year after year, local governments and nonprofit organizations have seen that Black or African American individuals account for a disproportionately large number of the homeless individuals in the region.
In their report of findings from the 2021 PIT count, the Washington Metropolitan COG wrote that the obstacles that members of the Black and African American community face are responsible for the high rate of homelessness amongst the population – and not just in the region, but nationwide.
“The racial disproportionality reflected in the 2021 PIT count demographic data is not unique to the metropolitan Washington region. Rather, it reflects a long history of racial segregation and discrimination in the United States that continues to impact people of color to this day,” the Washington Metroplitan COG said.
According to the report, several initiatives and programs have been put in place in cities within the region, including the passing of multiple social justice acts, the implementation of mandatory racial equity training for government employees and the creation of chief equity officer positions.
HUD is expected to release the results from the 2022 PIT count in late Spring or early Summer of this year. For more information, visit https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/hdx/pit-hic/.