Homeless Coalition Releases Report

It would be physically impossible to count every homeless person living in Hillsborough County in just 24 hours. Some are at jobs. Some are in school. And some simply refuse to cooperate with caseworkers and asking questions.

But every two years, the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County makes an immense effort to count the local homeless population, and this year its 300 volunteers put in 2,250 hours of work doing it.

Data from this year’s count, performed Jan. 27, was released at a news conference Thursday morning. While the numbers Coalition CEO Rayme Nuckles announced startled many in the conference room hearing them for the first time, what should be even more alarming to the public is how the data shows Hillsborough County still has much work to do to enable its homeless families and individuals to be self sufficient and obtain permanent housing, he said.

Volunteers and staff counted 17,755 homeless men, women and children living in Hillsborough County. Of those counted, 7,336 lived on the streets, in shelters or in wooded areas. The rest, 10,419 people, lived doubled up with family and friends and in motel rooms across Tampa and other parts of Hillsborough County.

Highlights from the 2011 survey:

• 23 percent are children (3,109 children enrolled in the Hillsborough County School District are classified as homeless)
• 35 percent are women
• 44 percent are white, 55 percent are black and 15 percent are Hispanic/Latino
• 90 percent said they became homeless in Florida
• 51 percent said they had never been homeless before
• 35 percent reported having a disability
  • Of these, 46 percent said their disability was physical, 36 percent said mental and 13 percent said substance abuse
•  65 percent have some form of income
  • SSI/SSDI - 19 percent
  • Job - 17 percent
  • Temporary financial assistance for families - 11 percent
  • Unemployment benefits – 8 percent
  • Panhandling – 7 percent (2011 was the first year this was asked)

When asked why they became homeless, 49 percent of the survey’s respondents said they’d either lost a job or were unable to earn enough income to support themselves and their families. Nearly 13 percent indicated family problems resulted in their homelessness.

The Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County performs this survey every two years, typically in late January, and must perform it in a single 24-hour period per federal guidelines.

Previous counts only included people who said they lived on the streets (9,566 in 2009 and 9,532 in 2007), not those living doubled up with family or friends or in motels.

“This year’s count gives us the best pictures of the homeless situation in our community,” Nuckles said. “This is the first time we’ve been able to count people living doubled up.  Lacking a fixed regular nighttime residence is really what makes a person homeless.”

Later in 2009, Florida legislators changed the state’s criteria that qualifies someone as homeless to include those living doubled up with relatives and friends or in motels.

As such, the county’s 2011 total count is significantly larger than the 2009 count while the number of participants who reported living on the streets appears to have dropped.

However, one volunteer at Thursday’s meeting noted that the weather on Jan. 27 was “horrific, cold and rainy,” making it difficult to find people on the streets and in wooded areas because they had likely sought temporary shelter from the weather.

Nuckles said each survey is considered an undercount due to the impossible task of locating each homeless person in the county on a single day. Still, this year’s results surprised him as he had expected a lower figure.

“I was astonished — truly shocked at the dramatic increase,” he said.

Going forward, Nuckles said the Coalition will use the new data to continue to its mission to advocate for the needs of homeless and to work with city and county officials to fulfill the county's 10-year plan (approved in 2002) to decrease the homeless population through prevention, rapid rehousing, opening a customer service center and developing permanent housing solutions for those in need.

The next homeless count in Hillsborough County will be conducted in January of 2013.  For more information about the 2001 homeless count or homelessness in Hillsborough County, visit www.homelessofhc.org.