Homeless in 2008
advocates for the
homeless. This report will not presume to provide a single, definitive, and indisputable
number of persons who are homeless in Georgia. However, it is important to have at
least some understanding of the magnitude and scope of the problem. Fortunately,
a significant amount of data from multiple sources is available to indicate how many
people in the state face the dreadful prospect of no place to live.
Point in Time Homeless Counts
The federal response to the problem of homelessness is embodied in the McKinney-
Vento Homeless Assistance Act, first passed in 1987. The McKinney-Vento programs
are administered by many federal agencies including HUD. In order to receive federal
funding, communities must organize services within a Continuum of Care umbrella.
In 2003, the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring that the Continuums of Care
conduct point-in-time homeless counts once every two years. Accordingly, each of
Georgia’s Continuums of Care (CoCs) have been engaged in an effort to count the
state’s sheltered and unsheltered homeless population.
The CoCs that cover Chatham, Cobb, DeKalb, and Fulton Counties and the consolidated
governments of Athens-Clarke, Augusta-Richmond, and Columbus-Muscogee conduct
homeless counts annually or biennially. For example, every other year, the Metro Atlanta
Tri-Jurisdictional Collaborative on Homelessness (Tri-J), comprised of the City of Atlanta, Fulton
County, and DeKalb County, has over 500 volunteers and staff walk and drive the entire 750
square miles of the jurisdiction from midnight to 5 a.m., looking for unsheltered homeless people.This national best practice canvassing model is coordinated by Pathways Community
Network for the Tri-J. On the same night, the Tri-J conducts a census of its emergency
shelter and transitional housing beds. On January 25, 2007, the Tri-J count identified
6,840 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in the two county area.4
Because the Balance of the State covers 152 counties, many of them rural, the Georgia
Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has always performed an annual assessment
of persons in shelters and transitional housing, but until 2008 did not have a feasible
way to count unsheltered homeless people. Beginning this year, DCA used a sampling
methodology and predictive model developed by statistics faculty at Kennesaw
State University.5 The methodology took the unsheltered homeless count in 23 counties to arrive at a predicted count of unsheltered homeless persons by county. The count data used
in the model included counts from 2007 and 2008. The counts conducted in the Balance of the State were done using surveys primarily collected at locations where people receive services.
All of the count efforts around the state, along with the model, indicate that there were over 20,000 people in Georgia who were homeless at a single Point-In-Time (a one-night snap shot)
during the last week in January. The homeless count surveys collected in January 2008 also
included a question about the length of time that people had been homeless. Using a weighted average of those responses provides an estimate of over 75,000 people who experience
homelessness in Georgia at some time during one year.
DCA and the other CoCs will be conducting new point-in-time counts during the last
week in January 2009. These counts will provide an opportunity to refine the count
methodologies and update our estimates for 2009. In addition, the counts will provide
trend data for the participating communities and the state as a whole.
Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) Data
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has also mandated that
Continuums of Care utilize a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) for
their federally funded programs for the homeless. In Georgia, all of the Continuums
have adopted the use of the same system provided through Pathways Community
Network. Statewide, 277 homeless service providers use Pathways HMIS. In 2007, these
agencies enrolled 31,195 individuals and family members, in various service programs.
Who is homeless in Georgia?
As part of the point-in-time count in January 2008, 1,578 unduplicated surveys were
collected from people around the state who were having housing difficulties. The
surveys focused on the housing status of the survey respondents and their families
(2,041 people) on the night of January 27, 2008. The housing status of the survey
respondents and their families is shown in the table below.
861 428 556 196
The people