As the month of January winds down each year, thousands of outreach workers across the country scour parking lots, back alleys, and other tucked-in areas searching for the homeless.
Once found, the outreach workers run through a battery of questions with the hope of gaining a better understanding of just how pervasive homelessness is in America.
Similar to a Census, these Point-in-Time Counts will be shared with the federal government with the hope that added funds will flow back to Lee, Collier and other county communities to tackle this very complicated issue.
Ashelba Brown is one such local outreach worker with the non-profit Community Assisted Supported Living. She specializes in helping those suffering mental illness and addictions and allowed WGCU to accompany her recently on a Lee County count.
Brown began by walking through a Walmart parking lot in Cape Coral where many unhoused try to blend in. She explained what to look for: People sitting in cars with the doors open; Excessive amount of things on the dash board.
Whether it's this big box store or one of the prolific strip malls in Southwest Florida, those living in their cars tend to park around the lot’s edge. The lucky, if there is such a thing when you're unhoused, find a spot under a shady tree.
Aside from counting the unhoused, it’s Brown’s mission to truly engage with individuals suffering on the streets, to help them find a place — a lofty goal in an area untenable for many because of skyrocketing rental prices.
Point In Time count finds the face of homelessness changing in Southwest Florida
Brown walked through parking lots for maybe 15 minutes, finally spotting a car with a sunscreen across the windshield, the dashboard spilled over with things. Filled bags rise from the floorboard to the roof of the car. As Brown approached, the driver-side window was down and a man inside was eating his lunch.
"Hello, we are doing a Point-in-Time Count for the homeless today. It’s nationwide. Can we count you,” Brown asked.
The man looks to be in his 60s, is clean-cut and admits to living in his car. He’s making do with money from his saving account and declines to be interviewed for the Point-in-Time Count.
“Come on bro, let me help you," Brown said.
He politely declined: “I’m glad you are doing your work — I just don't need your help today.”
The journey continued through yet another unofficial homeless shelter parking lot and ran across a woman escaping the mid-day sun under a tree, standing still, staring out to nowhere in particular and looked exhausted.
Her name is Kristara and tears come when asked how’s she’s doing.
"Little-by-little, I started losing everything,” she explained.
Kristara is in her mid 30s and said she’s been without a home for the past 18 months. Her four children were taken from her, just as she was taken from her mom when she was a young girl.
Kristara grew up in foster care and worries she will never reconnect with her children, just as she never did with her mother.
Brown encourages her to not give up.
“We all fall down but you’ve got to get up," she said. “Let me count you ok? … What’s your name. “
Kristara concedes. Her voice will be heard, her circumstances noted and analyzed.
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Volunteer, Jeff Plus, records information into the PIT website as Vaneza Gonzales, with Project Help, translates for a homeless man. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Ashelba Brown with CASL, spoke to a man who was living in his car, but would not allow them to count him for the PIT. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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“Let me give you a hug”, Ashelba Brown with CASL, said to a homeless woman on the streets of Cape Coral. She broke down while admitting she was homeless and needed help. She allowed them to count her and agreed to let them help her find a safe place to live. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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“Let me give you a hug”, Ashelba Brown with CASL, said to a homeless woman on the streets of Cape Coral. She broke down while admitting she was homeless and needed help. She allowed them to count her and agreed to let them help her find a safe place to live. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Ashelba Brown and Bill Carter with CASL, spoke to a homeless woman on the streets of Cape Coral. She allowed them to count her and agreed to let them help her find a safe place to live. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Kayla talks to a couple of homeless men in Cape Coral. The group had already counted them the day before. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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A man walks away with a tent, a cot, a sleeping bag and a backpack. He is homeless and sleeping outside. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Adrian Apollon has been homeless on the streets of Immokalee for over a year. He as able to get a sleeping bag and a tarp. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Moncito Michel Jr., a graduated student at iTECH, came to help cut hair. Cosmetology students from ITECH in Immokalee cut hair for free. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Cosmetology students from ITECH in Immokalee cut hair for free. They gathered around to watch their instructor cut a man’s hair. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Rose Souvrien, student at iTECH, grades a woman’s hair. Cosmetology students from iTECH in Immokalee cut hair for free. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Kayla gathers information on a homeless man who lost his house in Ian. They were at the bus transfer station in Cape Coral. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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A homeless camp in Immokalee. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
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Kayla stopped to talk to a man living on the street in Cape Coral. He didn’t want to be counted, but he did take her information she was handing out. The Point In Time count took place in Lee and Collier Counties. Volunteers walked the parking lots, woods, parks, and even set up a basecamp in areas they know the homeless will be at to get a count on the need in the area. The face of the homeless has changed over the past few years. The first time homeless made mostly up of elderly and single parents with kids are starting to outnumber the chronic homeless.
Andrea Melendez/WGCU
On a similar Point-in-Time Count in Collier County, we head behind a church in Immokalee. Like their counterparts in Lee County, several volunteers are here, they also are offering food, blankets, tents, vaccines and haircuts.
Nurse Linda Frisina has just given an older woman with no home a flu shot and guides the woman to the area where she can be counted. Frisina begins to cry.
"People have to understand ," she said, "people can lose it so easily and become homeless. It’s really sad. It’s a real problem.”
Snapshot of the homeless
The Point-in-Time Count is supposed to provide a snapshot of what the homeless situation is like at any given time during the year. But the numbers are far from reality, representing about 30 percent of the overall unhoused populations here and across the country.
Micheal Overway, who leads both the Lee County and Collier County homeless coalitions, anticipates the numbers in both counties will increase this year. Last year each rose significantly — Collier by 50 percent and Lee by 46.
There’s even more bad news. The average age of the unhoused is getting much older. That's not from the chronically unhoused aging each year, but rather it's because there's new, much older face of the unhoused.
“I think what we are going to see this year are the folks that have been homeless and on the streets for a long time are probably going to continue to be the smaller number," Overway said. "I think the newly homeless — or the first-time homeless — are going to be the larger in our counts again as they were last year. I think we will continue to see that trend.”
These newly homeless are mostly senior citizens, like the clean-cut man who declined to be counted, or women with children, like Kristara. When Kristara first became homeless, two of her children were living in a car with her. These new faces of the homeless could represent some 75 to 80 percent of all the unhoused in Lee and Collier when the counts are completed, outreach workers say.
“I hope our homeless situation nationwide gets better. It has to get better because we have an aging population," Brown said. "It has to get better because I don’t want my grandma or my grandpa here. You know it is heartbreaking.”
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