By Nolan Madden In a 2013 study of 2,030 homeless individuals by the Arizona Department of Economic Security and the Arizona Commission on Homelessness and Housing, more than one-third of respondents had spent a given night outdoors or in a vehicle. For many, it was far from a new experience: on average, most had been homeless for nine months, and had been displaced more than twice within the past three years. The situation remains a critical one locally, according to tallies taken by the Old Concho Community Assistance Center. “Last year in Winslow alone we counted 33 homeless persons. We also counted Holbrook, Joseph City, Springerville, Eagar, St. Johns, Concho, Vernon, Show Low, Pinetop, Lakeside and Snowflake,” explained OCCAC Executive Director Cindy Furrh. OCCAC is a Continuum of Care member, organized by the Arizona Department of Housing and partnering the 13 non-metro counties in the state. A Continuum of Care is a community planning process to organize and deliver housing and services to meet the specific needs of people experiencing homelessness as they move to stable housing and maximum self-sufficiency. Through the partnership, OCCAC conducts a standardized Point In Time (PIT) count to determine the number of unsheltered individuals throughout the region. The data is then provided annually to Congress to: * Measure progress at local and national levels related to preventing and ending homelessness. * Provide local program and system planning to continue to make progress in ending homelessness in all counties except Maricopa and Pima. * Provide the COC with a foundation for considering how to best use limited resources to meet the needs of those not housed. * Raise awareness of challenges faced by persons who are homeless in specific communities. “We ask them questions such as, ‘Are you a veteran?’ ‘How long have you been homeless?’ ‘Do you have a substance abuse problem?’ During last year’s PIT count, we found and documented over 50 homeless here,” Furrh related. The DOH coordinates the homeless count and requires the mandatory tally from all agencies it subsidizes. But, despite the census, according to Furrh, a glaring discrepancy goes unaddressed. “When we go and talk to the local towns they say, ‘No, we don’t have any homeless here.’ In fact, I interviewed a homeless man almost one block away from the Springerville Police Station after they had informed me that they don’t have any homeless persons in their precinct,” she said. “I interviewed three homeless veterans behind the Arizona Department of Economic Security office in Winslow after I had asked the DES representative, who assists the local veterans, whether he knew of any homeless persons in the city. He had told me, ‘No.’ This happens all over the county.” The DES runs the State Homeless Coordination Office, which plans strategic activities aimed at ending homelessness in Arizona. With state, federal and donated funds, DES contracts with local governments and community-based organizations like OCCAC to provide services for homeless and near-homeless individuals and families, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, case management, outreach, rapid re-housing and homeless prevention. DES representatives were not available for comment by press time. Furrh says that counting the homeless is not the safest task, and acknowledges that some area agencies and law enforcement have been helpful, citing that Winslow and Show Low police, and the Navajo County Probation Departments dispatch officers to accompany her agents during the count. Still, she points out that a number of area agencies, by definition, “refuse to acknowledge” displaced persons as homeless. “The federal government defines homelessness as sleeping on the street, in a car, an abandoned building, or a place not meant for human habitation for one night or more. A second definition includes being released from an institution, hospital or a jail with nowhere to go,” Furrh explained. In the case of mentally ill persons, who are often located as homeless, Furrh noted that state law restricts hospitals from releasing such patients following emergency evaluation without confirming a verified place of residence, but that local hospitals routinely contact nearest patient relatives of record for the patient to be released, whether the individual actually has a place of residence or not. “Whoever picks up the individual from the hospital is usually stuck with them, because the hospital will simply document the patient as ‘Released to Relative/Sibling.’ So the individual wasn’t released as homeless, they were released to another person’s custody. It’s a technicality,” she said. Furrh noted that the county’s vast forested areas are also slated in the count, but are often not included due to access restrictions, with the roads where homeless encampments are located often being impassable during winter months. “The forestry service is absolutely nice to work with, and they know of the homeless who are on those lands, but we can’t get to them,” she said. “All the persons living in these conditions are identified as homeless, but until we can identify that number, we can’t obtain the funds needed to deploy a plan to assist them because HUD considers that there aren’t any homeless, according to the records.” The 2016 PIT count will take place Wednesday through Friday, Jan. 27-29. The focus of the count will be where individuals spent the night on Tuesday, Jan. 26. General information about the PIT count is available online at https://www.hudexchange.info/hdx/guides/pit-hic/.