MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Trying to get an accurate count of those who don’t have shelter in the Mountain State is a daunting task. And it usually happens in the dead of winter.
That’s because many homeless can be found seeking shelter inside, even though many still hunker down in tents in the woods just far enough to be out of sight but close enough to walk to a convenience store or a fast-food spot. Even in the middle of a January deep freeze.
The Point In Time Count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. This year, it’s happening statewide during a 24-hour period beginning at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, January 24th and ending Thursday, January 25th at 3:59 p.m.
Maggie Garrido-Cortes is a Telamon Housing Program Coordinator and is based in Martinsburg. She says HUD requires an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and Safe Havens on a single night.
That information is used by the federal government to “track the number, demographics and needs of people experiencing homelessness throughout the country over time,” according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The numbers are also used to determine how much funding is allotted to those dealing with homelessness on the ground, like Telamon.
Garrido-Cortes says numbers from last year’s PIT survey, which put the statewide homeless figures at 1,375, fall short of the actual numbers of those battling homelessness in the Panhandle, let alone the state.
She says an attendance worker in one Eastern Panhandle County told her there are as many as 700 registered students with no fixed address in their school district alone.
One of the problems with getting an accurate count, according to Cortes, is that some folks don’t want to divulge their situation to a stranger, particularly if they have children with them, living in a car or in a tent.
Garrido-Cortes says volunteers fan out to shelters in the area.
She says they also go to places homeless people may go for shelter on their own, including tent communities
Volunteers try to find folks where they are and let them know there are services available, according to Garrido-Cortes.
Among the services, mental health care, as she says sometimes chronic homelessness may stem from mental health issues.
Other times, it is a “perfect storm” of events in someone’s life. She says she’s known of clients who were making six figure salaries who lost their jobs then suffered a series of other life-changing issues like a medical diagnosis or the death of a spouse that set up a spiral into homelessness.
Garrido-Cortes says the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness is training volunteers for the Point In Time survey right now.
Go to the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness Web page for more information.