If couch surfing is way up, is homelessness actually down?
According to the single-day count of homeless people conducted by the Council for the Homeless, 837 people were living on Clark County streets, in parked cars or in shelters on Jan 27, 2011. That’s a significant drop of 24 percent from the tally of a year earlier. The number was 1,041 on January 28, 2010.
But another 834 people were staying with family or friends — in temporary, emergency fashion. That’s a rise of 34 percent from the previous year’s count of 621.
So-called couch surfers aren’t exactly homeless, according to the definition used by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. But they’re not far from it, said Craig Lyons, executive director of the Council for the Homeless.
“People living with family and friends tend to be newly homeless,” he said. “They are tapping into their personal resources to get through a crisis.” They are the most immediate casualties of the recession, Lyons said — the folks who lost jobs or couldn’t make mortgages.
If the government starts adding them to its overall picture of homelessness, Lyons added, the official size of the problem will explode. That may happen next year, he said.
Meanwhile, he said, the council and its many collaborators have made a serious dent in chronic homelessness.
“When people typically think of homelessness, they think of the man on the corner who has no resources, no friends, no help. They have nothing to tap into. That’s the number we’re doing a good job driving down,” he said.
‘Housing first’ philosophy
The hard-core homeless population — beset by addiction, mental illness and inability to hold a job — has been helped by a “housing first” philosophy that’s catching on everywhere, Lyons said. That idea contends the basic building block of a stable life is a stable place to live.
“That’s this notion of, let’s get them into a place to live, then we’ll start working through all the issues and barriers that got them onto the street to begin with,” he said. Providing housing vouchers and case management is far less expensive to taxpayers than all the services required by street people, he said — from police patrols to shelter beds to emergency room treatment.
But even as more chronically homeless are being helped into more places to live, Lyons added, the problem in downtown Vancouver has grown more visible on a daily basis — because of the disappearance of resources like a couple of outreach trailers that were operated by Share, Inc. They provided homeless folks with showers, lockers, mail delivery and a daily base of operations until they disappeared last fall due to budget cuts.
“It might surprise people to hear the numbers are down, because the visibility is up,” he said.
Some other highlights from the Jan. 27 count:
• Of the 837 homeless persons counted this year, 435 of them comprised 158 homeless families with children younger than age 18.
• Of the 834 who were couch surfing, 710 were in 230 family groups — that’s more than 85 percent.
• There were 17 “unaccompanied” children counted in the survey, down from 24 last year.
Counting couch surfers
The annual so-called “point-in-time” count is required by Washington state law and by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Volunteers from local social service providers and other organizations surveyed clients at food banks, homeless shelters, urban campsites and on city streets.
The data was compiled and analyzed by the Coalition of Service Providers for the Homeless, including both public and private-sector agencies and organizations, led by the Council for the Homeless. The group uses the information to develop services for the homeless and for those at risk of homelessness.
Counting the homeless remains a tricky business, Lyons said, that’s dependent on factors as random as the weather. On Jan. 27, 2011, it was cool and foggy, he said, which may have driven the number down. He said the council also does a year-end tally of its own records and reconciles the different counts.
Plus, he said, there’s this: Next year’s count, here and nationwide, may be huge compared to this year’s — because the federal government may add people who are staying with family and friends back into its tally of the homeless total.
If couch surfing is as widespread across the nation as it is in Clark County, Lyons said, the redefined size of homelessness in America could skyrocket.
“There are a lot of moving parts. We’re waiting to get the new rules,” he said.
Scott Hewitt: 360-735-4525 or scott.hewitt@columbian.com.
