Oahu’s unsheltered homeless Point-in-Time Count postponed due to rise in COVID-19 cases

Oahu has postponed its Point-in-Time Count of unsheltered homeless people due to the surge of COVID-19 cases.

The island’s 2022 Point-in-Time Count was scheduled for Jan. 27 but has been pushed back to March 10 from 6 to 11 a.m.

Partners in Care is Oahu’s Continuum of Care Program; it organizes the annual Point-in-Time Count and turns in a report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Partners in Care Executive Director Laura Thielen said the rampant spread of COVID-19 causes safety concerns for volunteers and homeless people who would be surveyed.

“We want to be responsible and recognize that if we were to go out and multiple people got sick, there’s the possibility of us increasing our numbers overall as well as increasing the numbers in the hospitals, which is what we’re all trying to prevent at this point,” Thielen said.

Partners in Care, as well as all Continuum of Care Programs across the nation, are required to turn in a report to HUD by April 30.

Thielen said March 10 was the latest the count could be pushed back and still make the April 30 deadline.

The last Point-in-Time Count for the unsheltered homeless happened in January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 2,346 unsheltered homeless people who were counted. Unsheltered homeless accounted for 53% of Oahu’s total homeless population.

The 2020 Point-in-Time Count was done differently from in years past. The 2020 count happened in one day, asking people where they had spent the night. In years past, it happened over the course of multiple days.

Despite the change in methodology, Thielen said Partners in Care still has been able to compare data collected in years past, such as determining which people have been in multiple counts.

The 2022 Point-in-Time Count will use the same methodology as 2020 and conduct the count in a single day.

Thielen is unsure of what to expect from the numbers this year due to the barriers outreach workers face in having face-to-face contact with people during the pandemic.

She also pointed to the influx of money and resources that has come to the state and city through COVID-19 federal relief packages.

Partners in Care’s housing program alone has been able to house almost 300 households since March.

“That’s 700 people that have literally come off the streets in the last year,” Thielen said.

“But we do know that evictions are starting to happen more and more frequently. We’re hoping that there’s not a large number of new folks, but we know that that’s definitely a possibility.”

Hawaii’s eviction moratorium ended Aug. 6. However, Thielen has noticed that instead of evictions, landlords are just choosing to not renew tenants’ leases or deciding to sell the property.

“Because the eviction moratorium was so long, it kept a lot of people from losing their housing at that time,” she said.

“But with time comes the renewal of leases.”

The Point-in-Time Count of sheltered homeless people decreased from 2020 to 2021 by about 200 people.

Bridging the Gap, the Continuum of Care Program for the neighbor islands, will still conduct its unsheltered Point-in-Time Count on Jan. 23 as planned. That count lasts multiple days.