Annual Stanislaus homeless count reports a drop, but officials cite several reasons
Officials are reporting this year’s count of homeless people in Stanislaus County tallied 1,857 men, women and children, which is about a thousand fewer people than last year’s count.
But that does not mean homelessness is on the decline in the county and its cities.
Officials point to several reasons for the drop, including postponing the count because of the pandemic, having fewer volunteers than in previous counts, law enforcement sweeps of encampments and a very cold morning of the count, which meant some homeless people had spent the night sheltered with friends or family.
“This year, we faced some challenges ...,” Modesto Gospel Mission Executive Director Jason Conway said in a news release. “But the information we did receive will still help us develop important support services and housing for homeless individuals in our community.”
Conway is chairman of the Stanislaus Community System of Care, which organizes the annual count.
The system of care consists of local governments, nonprofits, homeless advocates and service providers, including Modesto, Turlock, Riverbank, Stanislaus County, The Salvation Army and the Gospel Mission.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires these counts for groups that apply for HUD homelessness funding. These point-in-time counts are conducted in communities across the nation in late January.
But the local count this year was postponed until late February because of a surge in COVID-19’s Omicron variant.
The counts consist of shelters reporting how many people are staying with them on a given night and volunteers going out the next morning to survey homeless people living outdoors. That took place Feb. 23-24 this year.
Fewer volunteers
The news release states that postponing the count resulted in scheduling challenges for volunteers and many did not participate. About 300 volunteers signed up, but 197 took part, said Doug Holcomb, the housing and homeless services manager for the county’s Community Services Agency, in an interview.
Officials like to have at least 250 volunteers, and recent previous counts have had more than 300.
In 2021, there was no outdoor count because of the pandemic. Organizers instead relied on another method to determine the number of homeless people living outdoors.
The 2021 count turned up a record 2,927 homeless men, women and children. Officials used data from the local homeless management information system, or HMIS, which tracks homeless people who receive help, to determine the outdoor count.
Officials said then they had tested and verified the HMIS data and had gained HUD’s approval to use it. They said using HMIS may have contributed to the higher count. But they also said the numbers could have been higher because of an increase in homelessness and better outreach efforts.
Snapshot in time
The 2020 count turned up 2,107 homeless people, and the 2019 count turned up 1,923 people. Both counts set records and beat the previous high of 1,800 of 2009 during the Great Recession. Counts have been conducted since 2005.
The counts are snapshots of homelessness in a community and should not be considered definitive. A variety of factors can affect the results, including how well the count is organized, the number of volunteers, the weather and law enforcement sweeps.
Holcomb said count organizers work with law enforcement to refrain from sweeps ahead of the counts and did so this year. But he said delaying the count hampered that effort.
He said law enforcement eventually has to respond to complaints about encampments and respond to encampments that are safety hazards, such as those near railroad tracks or along highways. Holcomb said he believes those factors contributed to the sweeps.
“They try to do everything they can not to move people,” he said about law enforcement.
Officials said the number of people counted does not affect the amount of HUD funding.
They said HUD requires only that the counts take place and are conducted with a sound methodology. The amount of annual funding HUD provides was not immediately available. But the count results can affect other state and federal homeless funding that agencies receive.
The counts raise awareness about homelessness and provide service providers with key information, which helps them better structure services.
Can’t pay the rent
The volunteer counters gather such information as how long people have been homeless, the reasons, whether they have a serious mental illness and-or substance abuse disorder and whether they have been in jail, foster care or a treatment center.
Of the 1,517 people who provided a response, the top reasons for becoming homeless were not being able to pay the rent (21%), being asked to leave (18%), losing a job (16%), alcohol-substance abuse (16%), illness (15%) and abuse and/or violence in the home (14%).
Seventy-seven percent of the people counted said they first became homeless in Stanislaus County, a finding consistent with previous years.
And as in past years, the majority of homeless people call Modesto home. This year’s count found 1,433 of the 1,857 homeless people in Modesto. Turlock was second with 211 homeless people. Empire was third with 70, and Patterson was fourth with 55.
Children made up 10% of the homeless people, with 183 of the 1,857 homeless people being 17 and younger. Sixty-five percent of the homeless people counted were male, and 35% were female.
This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
