Albuquerque Journal

Survey will gather data on homelessne­ss

Counts conducted across the state will influence decisions on addressing issue

- BY RICK NATHANSON JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Are there more homeless people in New Mexico now than before the pandemic? How many of them are men, women and families? When was the last time they worked?

These are just some of the questions that will be answered this week during the annual Point-in-Time count, in which people fan out across communitie­s throughout the state with surveys, asking both sheltered and unsheltere­d homeless people where they slept on the night of Monday, Jan. 25.

Communitie­s across the United States will also be surveyed, though perhaps on different dates.

The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessne­ss is coordinati­ng the state effort, said Hana Gossett, director of the organizati­on’s Continuum of Care program.

The data collected is compiled into a report that is submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmen­t, which uses it “to see which communitie­s are experienci­ng an increase or decrease in homelessne­ss, where more resources need to go, and to help paint a picture of inequities and places where we need to focus on different population­s,” Gossett said.

The 2019 count showed New Mexico with the highest percentage increase in homelessne­ss in the nation.

The data is also used locally, said Lisa Huval, deputy director for Housing and Homelessne­ss for the Albuquerqu­e Department of Family and Community Services.

“We can use the data to help us advocate for more funding for homelessne­ss, but it doesn’t necessaril­y mean that if we show an increase HUD will give us more money,” said Gossett.

Neither has the city historical­ly used the Point-in-Time count to determine how much it puts into homeless programs, Huval said. She noted that the city in fiscal year 2021 spent $23 million on such programs, “which include, but are not limited to supportive housing programs, emergency shelters and street outreach programs.”

Money for those programs comes from the city’s General Fund and HUD, Huval said.

In addition to its Westside Emergency Housing Center, the city and other partners have been using hotels to provide emergency housing during the pandemic. Eighty-seven families with 186 children were being sheltered across that network as of this week.

Normally, the Point-in-Time count relies on an army of volunteers, but this year most of them will not be pressed into service because “the majority of those folks are older and fall into the higher-risk categories for complicati­ons related to COVID,” Gossett said.

“Instead, we are coordinati­ng with our street outreach and other organizati­onal partners who are still providing in-person services, to do as much outreach as possible on the streets, at needle sites and at day shelters to still conduct the surveys,” she said.

In even-numbered years, the Pointin-Time count only surveys homeless people who stay in shelters on the designated survey night; in odd-numbered years both sheltered and unsheltere­d homeless people are counted.

Huval and Gossett said they know from the outset that there would be an undercount, particular­ly of unsheltere­d homeless people, who are often difficult to locate and who frequently decline to participat­e in the survey.

“We plan to do another unsheltere­d count in 2022 because we’re more concerned there may be a more severe undercount this year due to not being able to pull on more volunteers and everyone social distancing,” Gossett said.

The last sheltered/unsheltere­d count in 2019 put the number of homeless people in Albuquerqu­e at just over 1,500. Operators of homeless shelters and meal programs said the actual number was probably in the range of 4,000 to 4,500. Overall, the state experience­d a 57.6% increase in chronic homelessne­ss, which was the highest percentage increase in the nation at the time.

That survey also showed that about 40% of the unsheltere­d people in New Mexico were Native American.

Nationwide, according to HUD, African Americans accounted for 40% of all people experienci­ng homelessne­ss in 2019, despite being just 13% of the U.S. population.

Albuquerqu­e Public Schools estimates that at any given time over the course of a school year there are about 3,000 students who don’t have a permanent address, including students who live in motels or stay with family or friends.

Gossett said the coalition is working with APS to include in the Point-inTime count those students confirmed as homeless on the Jan. 25 count date.

 ?? ROBERTO E. ROSALES/JOURNAL ?? A homeless man sets up camp on a sidewalk near Third and Iron SW on Friday. The Pointin-Time survey will count homeless people in Albuquerqu­e this week.
ROBERTO E. ROSALES/JOURNAL A homeless man sets up camp on a sidewalk near Third and Iron SW on Friday. The Pointin-Time survey will count homeless people in Albuquerqu­e this week.
 ?? ROBERTO E. ROSALES/ JOURNAL ?? A homeless woman rests near Iron and Third NW in Downtown Albuquerqu­e.
ROBERTO E. ROSALES/ JOURNAL A homeless woman rests near Iron and Third NW in Downtown Albuquerqu­e.

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