The Midland’s Homeless Coalition in association with the Texas Homeless Network and volunteers from the community will on Thursday conduct Midland’s largest Point-In-Time Homeless Count in a coordinated statewide effort to measure homelessness across Texas.
Over course of 24 hours trained volunteers will count and survey individuals who are staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing, and unsheltered locations (outdoor encampments, streets, cars, and other places not meant for habitation) in our community. This count will provide a “snapshot” of the number of people experiencing homelessness as well as key characteristics of those individuals and families, a news release said.
The results will indicate the minimum number of people experiencing homelessness in our community on any given night. As a note, other forms of homelessness, such as people staying temporarily with friends, or those that can come up with enough funds for a hotel/motel are not included in the PIT Count (per HUD guidelines). The release said they recognize that this means the PIT Count data will only be representing a fraction of the homeless population in Midland.
The PIT Count will improve understanding of the needs and circumstances of the people experiencing homelessness in the community. The survey will provide key data on gender, age, ethnicity, veteran status and more, the release said.
Results from the PIT Count will be publicly available and the results used to improve our response to homelessness. In the future, successive counts will allow us to measure progress toward the goal of ending homelessness in Midland.
“The Midland Point-In-Time Count will be the largest coordinated effort among Midland nonprofit resource community to understand homelessness in the community. I could not be prouder of the work we are doing to ensure we know the size and scope of homelessness in Midland,” John-Mark Echols, Midland’s PIT Count coordinator, said in the release.
