Report: Houston homeless data stayed level before COVID-19
Before the novel coronavirus hit, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Houston region remained stable from 2019 to 2020, according to data released Monday by the Coalition for the Homeless.
Harris County’s count last year found 1,515 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in a single night and 2,052 staying in shelters — a 54 percent decrease since 2011. The Houston area’s homeless numbers spiked in the 2018 count, likely due to Hurricane Harvey. The 2020 count, which took place in January, found 1,551 living unsheltered and 2,202 sheltered.
Because the count took place in January, it does not account for the impacts of the pandemic.
“What we do know is to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our community, it is incredibly important we secure permanent housing for as many people as possible as soon as possible,” said Mike Nichols, president of the Coalition. “Housing is healthcare.”
Advocates fear a wave of homelessness due to the novel coronavirus, with people out of work and eviction moratoriums across the county expiring. Nichols promised that the Coalition was working on a plan to rapidly house people during the pandemic, but did not offer specifics.
“People are going to need more than just a few months of rent and unfortunately might become homeless,” said Ana Rausch, vice president of operations for the Coalition for the Homeless. “Were looking on how we can assist those individuals over the next two years.’
While black people only make up 19.9 percent of the Harris County population, 56.2 percent of the homeless population is black.
“This disparity is the result
of decades of structural oppression and systemic racism,” Nichols said. “The cards are stacked against African Americans today, yesterday, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. You don’t have to go back to slavery to see here the cards are stacked against them.”
Nichols pointed to the disproportionate incarceration of black people as part of the cause for their disproportionate representation in the homeless population: Inmates are released with
nothing, and having a criminal record makes it harder to find housing and get a job.
“Homeless is the key indicator of affairs in many other systems,” Nichols said. “A system that fails in mental health, a system that fails in drug and alcohol abuse, a system that fails people when they get out of prison.”
The “Point-in-Time Count” is meant to capture the number of people experiencing homelessness in a given night, both sheltered and unsheltered. Communities must submit their PIT count numbers to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development to receive federal funds.
The PIT count is widely understood as an undercount.
A January 2020 paper from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that although Illinois’s PIT numbers found a 24 percent decline in homelessness from 2011 to 2018, hospital visit data showed that homelessness doubled.
“It’s a touchpoint. It’s just a snapshot of a moment in time to help us track trends,” Nichols said. “It does not tell us the number of people who are unstably housed.”