Car trunks were packed with goodie bags filled with granola bars, gummy bears, crackers and bottles of water as teams of volunteers carpooled to different areas of the city this week. On day and night shifts, they walked sidewalks, cul-de-sacs, alleys, bike trails, arroyos and busy intersections. They looked under bridges, scanned perimeters of vacant buildings and homes and even rode on city buses. It was all toward one mission: get a count of Albuquerque’s unsheltered homeless population.
The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness’ (NMCEH) annual “point-in-time,” or “PIT” count – done over four days – concludes tonight. It’s a requirement for communities across the country that receive funding for homelessness initiatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The count also provides valuable demographic information to homeless advocates, city leaders, and others who are seeking solutions to an exploding homeless population and alarming housing crisis.
Last year’s “PIT” tally of 2,394 unsheltered homeless people in Albuquerque was the highest number in at least 12 years.
A successful count requires organizing about 150 volunteers, along with many other variables, said William Bowen, an NMCEH continuum of care program officer, and the lead of Albuquerque’s count for a second year.
“It’s a lot of people to wrangle, but they’re all doing their best,” an exhausted but always smiling Bowen said on the count’s second to last day.
It’s tedious work for volunteers, whether seasoned vets or first timers. But achieving a more accurate count requires some finesse, a non-threatening approach, and an empathetic attitude. A Bowen-style smile doesn’t hurt either. The nuances are important, Bowen said, as some homeless people choose to opt out of survey questions or engage with volunteers at all – skewing the results.
Bowen said the best practices come naturally to most volunteers, who represent NMCEH’s 22 partner and member agencies in the city, like Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, the Barrett Foundation, Catholic Charities, Cuidando Los Niños, Heading Home, and city departments. Students from the Technology Leadership High School volunteered this year and, for the first time, so did members of City Council.
“Going out to participate in the PIT count is important because we can hear directly from those who are unsheltered,” District 6 City Councilor Nichole Rogers said. “Getting an accurate count is critical for me to be able to offer solutions to our unsheltered neighbors.”
Abigail Stiles, the senior policy analyst for the city’s Council Services Department, helped facilitate the councilor’s participation.
“It’s one very important factor in the City Council’s efforts to craft legislation,” Stiles said. “Having our councilors participate gives them a first-hand look at the issues that the community faces. We felt this would help them form well-rounded solutions for the population.”
Other councilors who walked city streets were Tammy Fiebelkorn (District 7), Dan Champine (District 8) and Renée Grout (District 9). City Councilor Joaquín Baca (District 2) was scheduled to participate on the count’s final night. Klarissa Peña (District 3) and Brook Bassan (District 4) had representatives participate due to scheduling conflicts.
“I see homeless people every day, but it was good to start conversations and find that people come from all walks of life and live in every part of our city,” Grout said.
How many beds are there?
Bowen said after he’s had time to crunch preliminary count data – which takes a couple weeks – the next step is to launch a housing inventory count (HIC), also a HUD requirement. The goal is to get an accurate tally of the number of beds in Albuquerque dedicated to the homeless in four categories: emergency shelters, transitional housing, rapid re-housing and permanent supportive housing.
“We try to count and quantify every bed that is available to people experiencing homelessness in our given geographic area,” Bowen said. “It’s a pretty intensive process that happens internally – coordinating with service providers – and through online research.”
Bowen said the PIT count and the housing inventory count has to be in a HUD database by the end of April. A final report is typically published in the summer.
Meanwhile, statewide data is published each year in HUD’s annual homelessness assessment submitted to Congress. HUD separates New Mexico into two categories to calculate the data – Albuquerque and the “balance of the state,” which includes the state’s other HUD-funded communities.