2007 South Carolina State Homeless Count
The Statewide Homeless Count will be held on January 25, 2007. This year it is our goal to coordinate the efforts across the State to ensure a more accurate and consistent count. A number of State Agencies have provided funding to enable this coordination through the use of a statewide coordinator as well as central data entry and analysis. The Statewide Coordinator, Nanci Konsavage, will be responsible for coordinating the count efforts across the State. The Office of Research and Statistics will be handling all of the data entry and data analysis.
The Sheltered Count will be collected by pulling data from HMIS from those agencies that regularly use it and the completion of paper surveys from those agencies that do not use HMIS. In order to ensure the accuracy of the data in HMIS, a test report will be run on a day in early October which will be compared with shelter records and staff. The HMIS Coordinator in each Continuum will be responsible for conducting this test and reporting the results back to the State Coalition. Shelters that are not using HMIS will need to complete Form A (PDF).
The Unsheltered Count will be collected in one of two ways - depending on the needs and resources in each county. Remember that we are using HUD's definition of homelessness which is:
An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and (2) an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is (A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill); (B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or (C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
The Service Count, best for rural areas with a low number of unsheltered reported in 2005, will enlist the assistance of mainstream service providers in identifying those individuals they think are homeless on the night of the count. Starting on January 24th and running through February 9th, mainstream service providers will collect brief surveys on anyone that they serve that they know to be homeless and unsheltered. These surveys will then be compared to each other as well as to the lists from area shelters in order to ensure everyone is counted only once. Counties doing a Service Count will need to use Form C (PDF).
The Street Count will be conducted through observation in the late evening or early morning before local shelters have opened. You will need to coordinate with area shelters to find the best time to do the count in order to avoid counting those individuals that are staying in shelters. Individual information about unsheltered individuals will not be collected during the Street Count. Counties doing a Street Count will need to use Form B (PDF).
In February, each area will sample a smaller number of homeless individuals, sheltered and unsheltered, to complete a longer survey that will provide us with more information about the experience of being homeless and the barriers to becoming housed. Once this survey is completed it will also be available on this site.
Currently, the State Coalition is planning on having two trainings before the count. The first will be held in on December 6th and will assist the count coordinators from each Continuum in finalizing their count plan. A second training will be held on January 11th which will provide coordinators with the information needed to train volunteers during the week of the count. For more information on these trainings, please contact the Statewide Coordinator, Nanci Konsavage.
For more information about count planning in your area, please contact your Local Continuum Count Coordinator.
Upstate Area - Nanci Konsavage (Konsavage@charter.net)
Midlands Area - Lindsey Stillman (lindseystillman@hotmail.com)
Pee Dee Area - Austin Watson (jaustinwat@sc-online.net)
Myrtle Beach Area - David King (dking@tchc-web.org)
Charleston Area - Becky Van Wie/Anne Register (beckycoc@bellsouth.net)