Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on homeless count:
Hillsborough County homeless population unchanged but fewer living on streets
Thursday, June 4, 2015 11:58am
TAMPA — The number of homeless individuals living in Hillsborough County is basically unchanged from last year, though fewer of them are living on the streets or in squalid conditions.
An annual count conducted in February found 1,931 people living without a fixed residence in Hillsborough County, according to numbers released Thursday by the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative. The county reported 1,944 homeless in 2014 and 1,909 in 2013.
At the time of the count, there were 87 more homeless families than last year, defined as one adult with at least one child.
The biggest shift is in the number of people residing in homeless shelters. There are 322 more people living in shelters this year than in 2014, which reflects a 345-person drop in people living on the streets.
Antoinette Hayes-Triplett, director of the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative, said she believes that’s a sign they are turning a corner.
“Hopefully, next year the actual number of people experiencing homelessness goes down,” Hayes-Triplett said.
She credited the fall in the unsheltered homeless to increased funding for homeless initiatives and organizations that has led to 300 new beds in the county.
Since January 2014, Hillsborough County has awarded $2.3 million to local homeless organizations to provide bridge housing and $400,000 in financial assistance to help individuals transition to permanent housing. Another $1.6 million contract was awarded to the Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordinating Office to combat drug abuse.
“I do believe we’re making progress,” county Commissioner Sandra Murman said. “The number of homeless didn’t go down as much as I would have liked, but the funding Hillsborough County is investing in homeless individuals is starting to make a difference, and that’s significant. The number of chronic homeless is going down.”
Compared to 2014, there are 96 fewer people considered chronically homeless, defined by the federal government as a person “who has been continuously homeless for a year or more or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.”
Homelessness among veterans is up 32.6 percent, though the count took place before Operation Reveille, an initiative to assist homeless veterans, was in full swing. Hayes-Triplett believes that effort is making a difference already.
The information collected is submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help tally the national homeless population. It’s a challenging task, and the numbers are considered an estimate more than an exact head count.
The Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative is expected to soon release a five-year plan for tackling homelessness in the region, though no timetable was provided.
