Leveraging Existing Outreach Teams: PIT 2021
Every year there is an annual estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in Racine and across the United States. (We actually do it twice per year in Racine.) It is called the Point-in-Time (PIT) count and it includes the people who are staying in shelter during a given night and an estimate of the number of people who are sleeping outside (unsheltered) The Continuum of Care for the City and County of Racine (COC) brings together representatives from its member organizations and the broader community to conduct the street count portion of PIT, sending teams of volunteers all across the county to look for people who are unsheltered on the night-of-count. That is… until we entered the COVID pandemic. PIT 2021 is a little different and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued some revised guidelines for this years point-in-time count.
Racine’s PIT usually has about 35 -60 people participating in the unsheltered count that takes place on the 4th Wednesday of January and July. They gather together to get supplies, register, are formed into teams, and have orientation before going out to conduct the count; each team assigned a specific area of the county. Some teams meet people who are unsheltered, some don’t. Then they return with whatever information they were able to gather and we start putting together our estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness in Racine on that night by adding the unsheltered count to the number of people who were in shelter.
The COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns in Racine’s normal PIT process because of the possibility of exposure to the corona virus while meeting together at registration and orientation, as well as contact with people during the course of the count. HUD allowed room for some minor changes in PIT methodology, and even a waiver to eliminate the street count portion this year if the COC deemed it necessary. The National Alliance to End Homelessness also worked with the University of Pennsylvania to identify strategies for conducting PIT during the pandemic. Racine is conducting its 2021 Point-in-Time count, but will be using some of those revised strategies for the street count.
There are two main strategies that Racine is using for the unsheltered count this year that are different from most years:
Leveraging Existing Street Outreach Teams: Rather than bring in volunteers who need to be oriented, etc. Racine is using existing teams that already conduct street outreach across the county. This winter HOPES has two teams that go out on different nights: The “A-Team” (Warren, Rebecca, and Loretta - with two out of the three going out on a given night) and “The B-Team” (Ben and Scott). A third team was added for Point-in-Time with Andre (HOPES’ Housing Case Manager) and Kayla (an experienced PIT team leader). The team members have extensive outreach experience and did not to meet for orientation before the count (although the A-Team and B-Team ran into each other before we got started). Using personal protective equipment such as masks was another strategy, but HOPES’ street outreach teams have already been using masks since very early in the pandemic.
Extended Count: We will be conducting the count over several days. On Wednesday January 27th, the three teams covered the entire portion of Racine that is east of I-94. Over the next few days, the “B-Team” will cover the area west of I-94 and conduct some follow-up as needed to ensure that we have the best estimated count possible.
So last night (Wednesday, January 27th, 2021) started the count. It was the coldest night of outreach so far this winter, with the temperature dropping into the single digits before the last team finished around 3:00 a.m. The shelters (HALO, Women’s Resource Center, SAFE Haven, and Transitional Living Center of Burlington) will take their counts from the people who were in shelter that night, as well as transitional housing programs at Bethany Apartments and veterans’ programs at Union Grove. Eventually we will put all the data together and have a final count that will be submitted to HUD and rolled up into the national PIT count for 2021.
Just like everything else since last spring, Point-in-Time is different this year. We missed the comradery and excitement of having lots of community members and COC agency representatives join together for PIT. This year has been a more low-key approach to the unsheltered count (six people who didn’t even all meet each other before going out), but we were able to adapt to the current situation. We hope that by the July PIT we will be able to open PIT up to our wonderful community volunteers again.
Note: HOPES Center participates in PIT and also chairs the COC’s Point-in-Time work group that organizes the annual PIT counts in Racine.
Getting ready to head out for Point-in-Time 2021: Warren, Ben, Rebecca, and Sadie the Outreach Dog.