FACING HOMELESSNESS: Counting the homeless

Evening News and The Tribune, The (Jeffersonville, IN), 2015-01-02

Jan. 02 — SOUTHERN INDIANA — Numbers of Clark and Floyd counties’ homeless population have decreased between 2013 and 2014, but experts say this research may not be wholly representative.

According to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority’s 2014 Point-in-Time count, Clark County had 142 homeless individuals, 56 who were female and 86 who were male. Seventeen were veterans, 39 were chronically homeless, 32 reported a mental illness and 21 reported substance abuse. Most were over the age of 24 but 14 were under 18 years old. Only eight families or individuals had children, while 111 did not.

In Floyd County , there were 59 homeless individuals with 47 females and 12 males. Twenty-six were under 18 years old and 21 households had at least one child. There were no veterans or chronically homeless and four were recorded for the mental illness and substance abuse categories each.

In 2013, Clark County reported 156 homeless individuals and Floyd County reported 69 individuals.

Numbers at the county level were not collected in 2012 or 2010, but 2011 and 2009 numbers suggest that homelessness was not as widespread.

In 2009, Clark County reported 80 homeless individuals and Floyd County reported 35. And in 2011, Clark had 109 homeless individuals while Floyd reported an outlying number of 138 that year.

However, some local experts on homelessness say that these numbers are a less-than-accurate picture.

Melissa Fry , director of the Applied Research and Education Center for Indiana University Southeast , said that the Point-In-Time Count represents the number of individuals who are found in a single night in an emergency shelter, transitional housing and safe havens. She said it doesn’t account for people who are doubling up in homes, “couch surfing,” who are in the hospital, living in hotels or in jail. Paul Stensrud , director at Jesus Care at Exit 0, also said the count does not represent all homeless individuals.

“I think we’re missing a huge number of folks, but we don’t have any way of estimating how many that is,” he said.

Those individuals that the Point-in-Time Counts include are the same people who fit the national Housing and Urban Development’s definition of homelessness.

“That definition is fairly narrow because we know that a large number of homeless people are not actually on the street,” Fry said.

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