Teams hit streets for Point-In-Time Count
About a dozen teams walked the streets of Medicine Hat Wednesday night to determine how many people in the community are homeless.
A Point-In-Time Count like this is done regularly across the country, and by comparing numbers year to year it can indicate a trend in addressing the needs of those who are homeless.
There were 60 communities in Alberta participating this year, and counts will be done across Canada in the coming weeks. Alberta previously held counts in the fall but to be consistent with the rest of the country, it switched to April, says Jaime Rogers, homeless and community housing manager for the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society.
Medicine Hat embarked years ago on a project to end homelessness. But having achieved that goal does not mean nobody is homeless, Rogers says. The project is rather a method of more effectively addressing the needs of those experiencing homelessness.
Each tram was assigned specific routes to walk and given a briefing before heading out on the count. They were instructed to approach every person they saw without making any assumptions about whether they are homeless or not and instead ask the question. Anyone identifying as homeless was asked to participate in a survey, which team members completed using an app on their telephones.
On Oct. 16, 2014 Medicine Hat took part in a Point-In-Time Count that listed 64 people as homeless. Of that number, only eight per cent were living and sleeping on the street, while the rest were in an emergency shelter or living in short-term supportive housing, according to a
News story at the time. In November 2016, seven Albertan cities participated in a count, which indicated the number of homeless had dropped by 19.2 per cent since the 2014 count. Specifically in Medicine Hat, 33 people were counted in 2016 reflecting a 52 per cent decline in the previous two years.
The unofficial numbers from Wednesday night’s count will not be known for at least 24 hours. Official statistics that will include other communities will be released in the coming weeks, said Rogers.