CONTINUUM OF CARE CONDUCTS THE 2023 POINT IN TIME COUNT
CHICO >> For one day of the year, people without homes in Butte County are given an opportunity to share their thoughts in a nationwide census of people experiencing homelessness.
On Wednesday, The Butte Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care conducted the 2023 Point in Time count, a census and survey that attempts to account for all the people experiencing homelessness both sheltered and unsheltered locally in 24 hours.
Volunteers across the county, paired in twos, spent the day finding people who may be living in camps, in their trailers, under bridges and in greenways and taking them into account.
In Chico, one of six Point in Time Count Mobile Command Centers in the county was stationed in front of City Hall as a place for unhoused people to take surveys and where volunteers are assigned locations to conduct a count.
“Overall It was overwhelming, rewarding and at the same time tiring,” said volunteer Chelsea Barron, who completed three routes counting 24 people with her partner.
Chico Housing Manager Marie Demers said about 30 teams of two were sent from the Point in Time command center at city hall to areas like Lindo Channel. She said local shelters gave surveys the night before to their guests.
Demers said was checking in with officers from the Chico police Target Team and Code Enforcement of people’s whereabouts because they spend time in the field and interact often with people experiencing homelessness.
Demers said the survey itself has basic demographic questions that are required to be collected for local agencies to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The survey also has additional, community related questions including asking which factors may have contributed to one’s homelessness, or what barriers are preventing one from attaining more permanent housing.
Demers said the Point in Time count is usually an undercount of the actual number of people experiencing homelessness in the county, but it still gives a sense of how many people are living outside.
“It’s important that we do this even though it’s pretty much an undercount,” Demers said because the data collected is used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to allocate federal funds.
The Point in Time Count for people living unsheltered is typically conducted on odd numbered years, but the 2021 count was postponed to 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Demers said.
Demers said the full report of the 2023 Point in Time count in which data is finalized with any duplicates removed is usually published in the spring.
“It gives you a sense longitudinally to kind of see if there’s an increase or decrease. It will be interesting in Chico because now we have the Pallet shelters and they’re not considered unsheltered,” Demers said.
People who answered survey questions received gift cards and free food vouchers to food trucks in Chico, Paradise and Oroville on Tuesday.
Oroville
The Hope Center was one of two locations in Oroville where Point in Time Count Mobile Command Centers were located and from where teams of survey volunteers were dispatched to hit the streets in search of unhoused people.
Five teams of two to three volunteers each worked out of the Hope Center location on Fifth Avenue while other teams were dispatched from Butte County Social Services on Table Mountain Boulevard. Two Butte County Sheriff’s Office deputies were assigned to accompany teams conducting the survey in outlying areas and at the larger homeless camp sites.
Briana Butterfield, housing and homeless administrator for Butte County Employment and Social Services, and Denver Nash, a housing navigator with the same agency, staffed the Hope Center command center and surveyed the unhoused who came to the center for food and other services.
“Our teams are canvassing all of the Oroville area from Thermalito and Palermo through Oroville and up to the mountain communities like Berry Creek. Our teams are out and about looking for the unsheltered to talk to. We mostly find adults, not a lot of families,” said Butterfield.
One of the people Nash surveyed was Nate Bartlett, who has been homeless for five years. Nash said he was happy to answer the questions and hoped that his answers and those of others would help the county in providing services for the homeless population.
“I know there’s only so much the county can do. If it weren’t for the local churches and the Hope Center, things would be a lot worse for us. They give us clothes and supplement the food we get from food stamps and sometimes give us a place to cook or store our food and that really helps,” said Bartlett. “Being on the streets tends to drive people crazy after a while. When the nights are cold and the rain starts, we don’t get much sleep, maybe two to four hours a night. You do get tougher, more resilient over time, but no sleep can make you crazy.”
Mary Terry, Hope Center’s guest services manager, said even though the nonprofit center does not receive county funding, the Point in Time Count was “critical” because it helps determine the funding available for services for the unsheltered, a population she serves every day.
“The Point in Time Count determines the funding for services for the unsheltered in the county, services that we link our guests to for housing, food, transportation. The count helps determine the scope of what’s needed,” said Terry.
Terry said the Hope Center serves 30 to 50 unsheltered adults daily, providing food, clothing and hygiene products as well as linking them to social service programs for housing, medical care and transportation. In addition to the single adults that utilize the center’s services, Terry said they also see 25 to 35 families a day who are either homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.
“While we don’t benefit directly from the funding that becomes available through the Point in Time Count, it has a significant trickle down effect because it helps increase services to the people we work to help,” said Terry.
Emilio Muniz, an employee of Butte County Behavioral Health who “works with the unhoused population,” was one of the volunteers conducting the survey. He’s been volunteering for the count for the past 10 years. The first area he and his team canvassed Tuesday morning was located near the corner of Oro Dam Boulevard and Lincoln Street. They spoke to about 10 people.
“There are a lot more unhoused needing resources in the county since the (Oroville Dam) spillway incident, the Camp Fire and the Bear Fire. Those incidents dramatically affected people, many of whom have never recovered,” said Muniz. “With the Point in Time Count we get the opportunity to speak to people about their situation and the resources they need. We learn from them.”