It’s that time again (the last week in January) and from coast to coast thousands of volunteers have been recruited to help count homeless people during the point-in-time (PIT) count required by HUD, the 800 pound gorilla of “homeless” funding. (Note: to be eligible to score well enough to secure money from HUD during the annual “Continuum of Care” competition, cities/communities, etc. all over America follow the Golden Rule, e.g., the one with the gold makes the rules—and this is a very good rule.)

Starting point:

In January 2019, the total number of homeless people reported during the one-day count was 567,715 (about 6,000 fewer than the entire population of Wyoming!)

Of the 567,715, providers reported sheltering 401,051 unaccompanied adults.

More problematic? Finding the “unsheltered” 194,409 unaccompanied adults and the unsheltered 4,348 households with at least one child under 18.

Even more problematic? Finding and asking questions about length of time homeless, and medical or mental health issues of the unsheltered 52,243 individuals with severe mental illness and the 43,069 with chronic substance abuse. Among those unsheltered were 14,345 veterans.  

 That’s when, and where, trained volunteers were—and still are-crucial.

 In the wee hours of the night, at the break of dawn, and throughout the 24-hour period of time set aside for the count, they fan out across cities, communities and rural areas to help count homeless people on the streets, under viaducts, bridges, and bushes—in parks, encampments, abandoned buildings, and “catholes” just big enough for a person to curl up in and hide—and other places “not meant for human habitation.”

It can be, and often is, a life-changing experience--for homeless people—and for those who count them. (It was for me.) God bless all of those who are being counted, and those who have counted, or will be counting them! And God bless those who spend their days trying to get them to come in and accept. Lest we forget, God bless the family members who are heartsick that their loved one is living in squalor on the streets of America, either too mentally ill to understand and accept that he/she has a serious brain disorder, and the addicted who are so sick that they've given up hope of ever getting well.