Point In Time

This week UNITY conducted our annual Point In Time count. The purpose of this count is to provide as comprehensive a count as possible of how many people are homeless in the Greater New Orleans area. The reason for this is so that we can provide the numbers to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development so that they can gauge our need for resources in working towards preventing and ending homelessness. It is also used to better understand the nature and extent of homelessness in the NOLA area.

The people that we count have to be what's referred to as "literally" homeless. This means that the person must be living in an emergency shelter, in a transitional housing program, or living in an area not meant for human habitation (street, abandoned building, car). This does not include couch surfers, people displaced by a storm and living with family members and friends, or people living in motels/hotels.

Now the reason that it is called "Point In Time" is because we are supposed to count how many people are homeless in NOLA at any given time, hence "point in time." Because of this, the count needed to happen in a 24-hour period. For those of you who don't already know, there is not a small amount of homeless people in New Orleans. There are thousands.

A lot of cities for their Point In Time just simply count the people, however we take it a step further and actually interview each person we come across. We ask them demographics, health history, military background, sexual orientation, etc. So instead of simply knowing the number of individuals, we know information that will further help us get resources for the types of people that need help. For example, there are currently little to no resources for the lesbian/gay homeless teen population, however if we provide data for how many of those individuals are on the streets, we can argue the case that we need more resources to help them.

I was the assistant to the Director of the Point In Time this year and the volunteer coordinator, which you can imagine was pretty chaotic. I recruited upwards of 150 volunteers for six different counting shifts at various shelters and across the neighborhoods and streets of New Orleans. Needless to say, these past three weeks of planning have been pretty crazy and stressful, however during the count it was all worth it.

With all of the stress of planning I was getting lost in the logistics of things: Were there enough volunteers? Clipboards? Cameras? Pens? Sheet protectors for rainy nights? Carpools? It was hard to focus on what we were actually doing until the time for the count came.

We were providing people with hope. Imagine this: you are sleeping under the bridge in one of New Orleans most dangerous neighborhoods with nothing but a wet cardboard box under you and an old, smelly, torn blanket over you. You haven't eaten for days nor spoken to anyone. You notice that people that pass by you seem to walk out of their way to avoid being close to you and they appear scared. Some feel sorry for you, but offer no way to help. And then one of our street volunteers (who went out from 9 pm to 2 am) comes up to you at midnight and wants to know everything that you're going through so that we can put you in our registry. So that we can help. We want to help. Someone finally cares about you, cares what you have to say, cares what you've been through, cares where you're going.

Every single person we interviewed (over 1,000) on Monday/Tuesday will be typed into the UNITY registry. The registry rates homeless people on how vulnerable they are and how likely they are to die if they continue to live in their situation. The score comes from numerous factors: health history, age, years homeless, etc. The most vulnerable shoot to the top of the registry and are next in line for housing.

What we're doing is providing thousands of people with chances. By being on that registry they have a chance to be housed with us. They are no longer invisible. They are not just another number on the count. We have their name, their location, their demographics, and even a picture so we can look for them if housing is ready (as most of them do not have phones, and none of them have mailing addresses).

The count was crazy. I had to wake up earlier than usual. I had to work later than usual. I was more tired than usual. I was more stressed than usual. But at the end of the day, I had a wonderful boyfriend who picked me up right at the door of my work to take me home to a beautiful warm house and comfortable bed. I had a place to go, and always have a place to go because I have people who love me. It's unfathomable to me that people live so long without warmth and love in their lives, because for me, that's the core of my life. That's what makes me who I am. And if I didn't have it, I, like most of the people we counted, would be hopeless.