Slide 1

**Conducting Homeless Point-In-Time Surveys**

**A 10-Step Process**

**Tracy D'Alanno**

**Colorado Department of Human Services**

**Supportive Housing and Homeless Programs**

**Phone: 303-866-7361**

**E-mail: tracy.dalanno@state.co.us**

Slide 2

**Homeless Point-in-Time Survey**

**Why Do It?**

-   HUD requires sheltered and unsheltered census counts in their annual
    Continuum of Care application

-   A point-in-time survey may be used to produce an estimate of the
    "point prevalence" of homelessness in a community or region either
    in conjunction with, or when there is not an active HMIS

-   Point prevalence is the number of cases observed at a particular
    point in time or the number of homeless persons on a given day or
    night

Slide 3

**Benefits**

-   May be used for estimating population size, distinguishing
    demographics, and identifying needs

-   Provides useful information for public education about homelessness

-   Helps agencies with grant applications

-   Helps direct public policy planning and development

-   Provides information to communities for service planning

-   Helps HUD Consolidated Planning Jurisdictions with completing their
    plans

-   Provides the information needed to complete Exhibit 1 of the
    Continuum of Care application

Slide 4

**Limitations**

-   Undercounting is the primary limitation of this method. Counting
    persons who are homeless is not an exact science. Limiting the
    methodology to a specific point in time makes it difficult to
    capture all potential cases

-   Requires a lot of coordination with participating agencies

-   A lack of full participation from all homeless providing agencies
    could lead to a significant under count and bad data

Slide 5

**Step 1: Who and Where**

-   Determine Who You Want to Count

    -   Single Individuals

    -   Families

    -   Youth on their own

    -   Veterans

    -   Sheltered

    -   Unsheltered

    -   Chronically Homeless

-   "Where" -- Continuum of Care jurisdiction, multiple CoC's,
    statewide?

Slide 6

**Step 2: When**

-   Pick A Date

    -   Recommend last week of January 2005

        -   Posted in HUD 2005 Exhibit 1

    -   Publicize the date frequently to homeless providers

    -   Backup timeline activities -- survey development (English and
        Spanish), copying, distribution, training, volunteer
        coordinators

Slide 7

**Step 3: How**

-   Determine "How" You Want to Count

    -   Self-reported surveys

    -   Interviews

    -   Combination Interview and Self-Reported

    -   Street outreach

-   Survey Distribution -- all shelters, day shelters, soup kitchens,
    transitional housing programs, county social services, jails,
    prisons, hotels/motels, shelter help lines

Slide 8

**Steps 4: What**

-   Determine What You Want to Know

    -   How many persons

    -   Type of population -- singles, families, veterans, special
        needs, youth, seniors, chronic homelessness

    -   Important demographics -- age, gender, race, ethnicity

    -   Important special need indicators -- mental illness, substance
        abuse, HIV/AIDs

    -   Last permanent address

Slide 9

**Steps 4: What**

-   Determine What You Want to Know

    -   Where persons are staying -- shelter, streets, transitional
        housing

    -   Length/frequency

    -   Reasons for homelessness

    -   Education

    -   Income

    -   Employment status

.

Slide 10

**Step 5: Survey Instrument**

-   Short as possible

-   Use checkoff boxes as much as possible

-   Code instrument for easier data entry

-   Use of identifiers for de-duplication -- parts of name, date of
    birth, gender, age, and potentially Social Security number

-   See handout instrument

Slide 11

**Step 5: Survey Instrument**

-   Homeless qualifier

    -   Are you homeless?

    -   Do you have a permanent place to live? If yes, match with where
        they spent last night

-   Spanish version?

-   Provider buyin through participation

-   Form a committee to oversee process

-   Point persons for multiple jurisdictions

-   Develop data entry rules -- what to do with missing responses, why
    this question, etc.

Slide 12

**Step 6: Get Help**

-   Who is taking a lead on organizing the project? Committees are
    great, but you need someone to bring it all together

-   Research and data entry assistance -- university, outside
    contractor, researcher, State or local government, some combination?

-   Homeless persons -- usually the best at street outreach

-   Volunteers for each organization

-   Funding incentives -- candy bars, soda, cash

-   Provider participation

Slide 13

**Step 7: Training**

-   One week prior to count

-   Hold trainings for participating agencies

    -   Large group

    -   At each agency

    -   Teleconference

    -   Regional

    -   Distribute forms

Slide 14

**Step 8: Count Day**

-   Participating agencies collect surveys during the day and evening of
    the point in time

-   Transitional housing providers may want to complete survey
    information on behalf of their consumers over the course of that
    week

-   Be prepared for press calls -- use these to your advantage

-   Set up process for collecting completed forms

Slide 15

**Step 9: Data Entry and Cleaning: Where the Real Work Begins**

-   Clean paper forms and code

-   Spot check during data entry -- look for errors, check every 10th
    record, etc.

-   Someone needs to be available to data entry clerks to answer
    questions

Slide 16

**Step 10: Data Analysis and Findings**

-   Analyze Data

    -   In-house -- large jurisdictions use something like SPSS; smaller
        jurisdictions could probably use ACCESS or Excel

    -   Consultants

    -   Universities

    -   Government agencies

-   Distribute Findings

    -   All participating agencies should get a copy of the findings

Slide 17

**Distribution and Use of Data**

-   Release results through press conference

-   Consolidated plan jurisdictions

-   Continuum of Care and grant applications

-   Researchers

-   Schools, colleges, and universities

-   Special queries

-   Trend analysis

-   Policy development -- local, State, national

Slide 18

Data example: the table and bar graph on this slide show how many people
were homeless on January 27, 2003. There were 2,813 homeless single
adults age 21 and older, 3,452 homeless adults or youth headed families,
3,059 homeless children (under 18 years) in families, 401 homeless
single youth (12-21 years) not in families, for a total of 9,725
unduplicated homeless persons.

Slide 19

Data example: the table and bar graph on this slide show the number of
homeless persons that were counted for the years of 1998, 2000, 2001,
and 2003. There were 2,514 homeless single adults age 21 and older
counted in 1998; 2,722 in 2000; 3,024 in 2001; and 2,813 in 2003. The
number of homeless adults or youth headed families counted in 1998 was
1,150; 1,938 were counted in 2000; 2,728 in 2001; and 3,452 in 2003.
There were 1,931 homeless children (under 18 years) in families counted
in 1998; 2,745 in 2000; 3,522 in 2001; and 3,059 in 2003. The count of
homeless single youth (12-21 years) not in families was 197 in 1998; 284
in 2000; 396 in 2001; and 401 in 2003. Finally, the total number of
unduplicated homeless persons counted was 5,792 in 1998; 7,689 in 2000;
9,670 in 2001; and 9,725 in 2003.

Slide 20

Data example: this slide shows a table that breaks down the homeless
population by age, listing the frequency, percentage, valid percentage,
and cumulative percentage of the population.

0-5 years: Frequency at 1599, percent and valid percent at 16.4, and
cumulative percent at 16.4

6-14 years: Frequency at 1342, percent and valid percent at 13.8, and
cumulative percent at 30.2

15-17 years: Frequency at 458, percent and valid percent at 4.7, and
cumulative percent at 35.0

18-20 years: Frequency at 595, percent and valid percent at 6.1, and
cumulative percent at 41.1

21-30 years: Frequency at 1501, percent and valid percent at 15.4, and
cumulative percent at 56.5

31-40 years: Frequency at 1542, percent and valid percent at 15.9, and
cumulative percent at 72.4

41-50 years: Frequency at 1499, percent and valid percent at 15.4, and
cumulative percent at 87.8

51-64 years: Frequency at 739, percent and valid percent at 7.6, and
cumulative percent at 95.4

65-75 years: Frequency at 63, percent and valid percent at 0.6, and
cumulative percent at 96.0

75+ years: Frequency at 16, percent and valid percent at 0.2, and
cumulative percent at 96.2

Not answered: Frequency at 371, percent and valid percent at 3.8, and
cumulative percent at 100.0

Total: Frequency at 9725, percent and valid percent at 100

Slide 21

Data example: this slide uses a pie chart to illustrate the percentage
of the total homeless population each age group represents with a focus
on homeless children. In this chart, children equal 35% of the total
population, with ages 0-5 at 17.1%, ages 6-14 at 14.3%, and ages 15-17
at 3.6%.

Slide 22

Data example: this slide shows uses a bar chart to display the
information displayed in the chart on slide #20.