Across the country each year, homeless advocates and outreach workers fan out, searching bus stops, parking lots and bridge culverts for the unhoused. Bus passes, backpacks and brochures about various homeless services available in the area are typically passed out.
This isn’t just a goodwill mission. It’s a chance to make connections and have discussions about life on the streets. Willing participants are asked to be counted in a survey — providing a snapshot of how many people are unhoused at any given time. It’s called a Point-in-Time Count.
The more people counted, the more money the federal government sends to area homeless coalitions for much-needed services meant to get people off the streets.
The survey takes about five minutes.
That sounds simple enough. But that's not so in Florida this year after a new law making it a crime to sleep in public went into effect.
It’s now not only harder to find those in dire need of affordable housing and social services, but more difficult to get those who are found to believe the outreach workers administering the survey aren’t law enforcement.
Cheri Arnold with Lee County’s homeless coalition knows this new reality and is troubled by it.
“I struggled to get full information on a lot of people because they were afraid the police were going to come looking for them. So I had to reassure them that collecting information doesn’t have anything to do with the police," she said. "We’re trying to get the information so we can tell the government we need more funds to help this class of individuals. They are afraid now and it’s much more of a struggle then last year.”
The passage of Florida House Bill 1365 has significant implications on the unhoused since it became law Oct 1. Governments have more authority to regulate space increasing the likelihood of more arrests and citations in parts of the state that do not have an adequate supply of affordable rentals and shelter space.
There are no homeless shelters in Lee or Collier counties and critics of the law say the new law's approach is not addressing root causes of homelessness.
That’s where additional funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, comes in to help bolsters other funds from the state. But the federal government needs to justify its funding and that's where the Point -in-Time count comes in.
Last year in Lee County there was a 40 percent spike in the number of homeless people. The spike brought in an additional $500,000 in public funding.
Now advocates are forced to ask: Will there be less funding if fewer people want to participate in the survey?
"We’re getting denied more than we’re getting accepted to do the survey,” said Michael Overway, who heads both Lee and Collier counties homeless coalitions. He's hoping the federal agency will understand the new law’s impacts on getting a headcount of the counties’ unhoused populations.
The new law allows for counties to provide dedicated encampments for the unhoused, something homeless advocates like Overway bristle at because of safety concerns of having so many people packed in one area. Police must provide security at all times in these encampments. But there are no such encampments in South Florida at the moment and if there were, and that lifestyle may not be for everyone.
Regardless, many of the unhoused are doing their best to stay hidden and away from police. In some cases, they are taking extreme measures, said Nadja Joseph a homeless outreach worker in Collier County.
"The idea is to stay hidden," she said. She's come across people hiding in trees.
"If you are caught sleeping in public park you will get arrested," Joseph said. "There is no warning, so you can imagine they are tying themselves up in trees as a form of staying safe and to stay hidden."
The consequences of the new law in Florida remains to be seen. Even before the law, the Point in Time Counts captured maybe a third of the true homeless population. HUD recognizes that, Overway said. But he predicts this year’s counts will only be reflective of about 15 percent of the true homeless population.
“When people don’t want to participate in the homeless count we end up with numbers that are not truly reflective of our situation, then we are going to continue to battle and were going to have a battle of the numbers for years and years," he said.
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