The number of residents estimated to experience homelessness at some point in time this year in San Benito County is 1,153 people.
The total is extrapolated from a census of homeless residents conducted on Jan. 23, when members of the Homeless Coalition of San Benito County and volunteers went out throughout the county to comb the streets and out of the way places where homeless residents are known to camp during the winter. The groups also counted the number of residents who stayed in the temporary winter shelter run by the homeless coalition, the families who stayed at the emergency winter shelter run by the San Benito’s Community Services and Workforce Development office, and those families staying at Emmaus House. They found a total of 365 individuals in the 2013 census, up from 193 in the 2011 census.
The Homeless Coalition presented the results of the latest survey July 9 at the county board of supervisors meeting.
“It’s done every two years and it’s a national effort,” said Peter Connery, a consultant with Applied Survey Research, a nonprofit. “We look at the homeless that are both sheltered and unsheltered because the numbers determine federal allocations of dollars that are granted through a super NOFA (notice of application.)”
Connery acknowledged there are some limitations to conducting the point-in-time survey as it does not include people who are technically homeless who might be shuttling between family or friend’s homes.
One challenge is that it doesn’t accurately reflect the number of people who experience homelessness throughout the year,” he said. “By July 9, there may be 100 of the original who find a way out or have moved on, but they may be replaced with additional homeless.”
He said ASR uses a formula that looks at the demographics gathered in the survey part of the census to estimate how many people may be homeless in San Benito in a given year, which this year they estimated was 1,153.
The first homeless census was conducted in San Benito in 2011, when the county joined a continuum of care with Monterey County in efforts to open it up to more federal grant funding. The methodology has improved since the last census was conducted but Connery said it is likely the increase numbers are not solely based on better methods. He said the numbers have increased in other nearby counties.
