Homelessness count to tally citizens from mainland US

One of the aims of this year’s count, with a “coordinated system of young people to help in that task,” will be to determine the number of homeless youth on the island, Continuum of Care PR-502 President Belinda Hill said.

By THE STAR STAFF

Homelessness trends, including citizens moving from the United States without resources, to homeless youth and older adults who are left on the street, will be priorities in the count of homeless people that the Continuum of Care (CoC PR-502) will carry out Jan. 28-29, supported by nonprofits and the Family and Agriculture departments, in the northern region of Puerto Rico.

“The purpose of this new count is to identify new trends in homelessness in order to explore how we improve our service responses,” CoC PR-502 President Belinda Hill said. “We know that one of the every 10 calls we receive for services are from homeless people who come from the United States to ask for help thinking, mistakenly, that in Puerto Rico it is easier to find a place in a home. Likewise, [from experience] we understand that it is difficult to count homeless youth, so for two years we have had a coordinated system of young people to help in that task. Older adults who are left on the street due to evictions or economic problems are another group that we want to assess [to determine] if it has increased in Puerto Rico.”

The count will be conducted in the streets of 24 municipalities in northern Puerto Rico, including San Juan, which is the municipality with the highest number, 28%, of the total number of homeless people on the island. The process will begin on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m. and will extend for 24 hours until 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 29. CoC PR-502 is still recruiting volunteers for the count, who will be trained in Arecibo, Vega Baja and San Juan from Jan. 20 to Jan. 23. Those who wish to register as volunteers and participants in the trainings can request information at (787) 294-4900, extensions 1181 and 1174, and/or email coc@familia.pr.gov.

CoC PR-502 Executive Director Liz Mónica Lamboy noted that “the requirement of the count is part of a federal regulation to be able to apply for funds from the federal government for homeless housing services.”

“The results of the count are used by Congress for the allocation of funds for the different homelessness organizations,” she said. “The current administration of President Donald Trump has shifted some of the priorities to address homeless people and one of the questions to ask as part of the interviews that are done in the count is if people are accessing mental health and substance abuse treatment services.”

Although the federal requirement is to conduct a homeless count every two years, CoC PR-502 decided to do it annually in the island’s northern region. In last year’s count, carried out in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified 1,031 homeless people, of whom 40.7% were experiencing situations of chronic homelessness and 75.9% reported some condition of vulnerability, such as problematic substance use, mental health issues or physical impairments.