Count of homeless in St. Joseph helping to pinpoint strategies
A local nonprofit’s survey of unhoused people in St. Joseph aims to focus local resources where they are needed most.
The United Way of Greater St. Joseph recently conducted its annual Point in Time Count to see how many people are unhoused in the city. The data will help agencies better understand the local homeless population and develop effective strategies to help them in the future.
About 25 volunteers affiliated with United Way went out to local communities where homeless individuals stay to survey them and discuss the resources they lack to prevent unhousing.
“There’s a lot of agencies who are working to address the issues of homelessness, but there’s so many challenges and barriers,” said Jodi Flurry, United Way director of community investment. “Finding a rental unit, the low supply of housing stock is a real challenge because there’s even people who have a housing voucher through the public Housing Authority, but they can’t find a rental unit so they stay homeless.”
Officials are reiterating that the homeless epidemic isn’t just a local concern, it’s a nationwide problem due to various issues including a rise in rent prices for many living off of Social Security.
The annual Point in Time count isn’t just about gathering data. United Way and other outreach workers also use it to connect with people and give them emergency supplies including hygiene kits, socks, backpacks, hand warmers, food and flashlights.
Annual numbers for the count of the homeless population won’t be available until May but local organizations will be looking for solutions to help reduce the population.
“When we do get those reports back in several weeks, we can look at the demographic data and it helps agencies better shape programs if we see that there is a rising need in this area,” Flurry said. “Maybe an agency is able to ramp up their efforts to try and address that. Just as one example, even IDs can be a huge barrier, and most agencies don’t have money to pay for an ID, so maybe it’s about using funds to help get those IDs so they can apply for jobs, apply for benefits and apply for housing.”
The United Way works year-round with many local agencies including the St. Joseph Police Department, Community Missions and others to better serve the homeless population and help them find housing.
The count is federally required and the data is used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine how to distribute federal homeless relief funding.
