An annual count of the homeless in Hawaii, which will get underway next week, is part of a national snapshot taken on a single night to track the problem and target where resources are needed.
Similar "Point-in-Time" homeless counts are conducted across the country under guidelines developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"It helps us get a good idea of how many homeless people there are in Hawaii, and that helps us to get funding so that we can provide the services that we need," said Leslie Uyehara, director of the Kalihi-Palama Health Center’s Health Care for the Homeless project.
This year’s count of people in homeless shelters will be taken on the night of Jan. 22, while the unsheltered survey runs through Jan. 29, as outreach workers fan out across the island asking people where they slept on Jan. 22. The islands are partitioned into regions to organize the effort, and volunteers are needed in various areas.
"We need to get an accurate reading on the number of unsheltered homeless, to locate them and strategize how best to decrease that number, get them into housing and work with them," said Carlos Peraro, a consultant and data committee chairman for Partners in Care, a coalition of homeless service providers.
Field staff, including trained volunteers, collect identifying information for each person counted to avoid duplication. Volunteers may contact any of the major shelters to offer to help.
Last year’s tally found 3,091 people in shelters and 1,465 unsheltered homeless on Oahu. The unsheltered count had risen 11 percent over the previous year, while the sheltered count was up 1.8 percent.
Among people housed in Oahu shelters, two-thirds were part of family units. Among the unsheltered on the island, roughly 9 out of 10 were individuals.
"Many of the homeless service providers have thought the survey has undercounted the unsheltered homeless, especially on Oahu," said Peraro said. "That’s why it’s important to get as many people as we can and improve the accuracy of the count, so we can be confident in the statistics we are presenting."
