On Thursday, January 25, 50 volunteers gathered throughout the day at the First Presbyterian Church in San Marcos to go out in three-hour shifts to locate and count the homeless population in Hays County. The count was conducted by the Homeless Coalition of Hays County. The organizers of the official Point In Time Count were Patsy Ann Reed, PIT Count Planning Team Coordinator, and Nancy Heintz, PIT Lead Co-Coordinator 'The Teams were made up of a driver, a spotter who helped navigate their assigned area, and one or two surveyors,' Heintz said. 'The surveyors used a Counting Us mobile app on their phone to complete the survey with the people they encountered who were willing to participate in the survey.'
She added, 'Each team was given a notebook that contained information concerning their assigned area, maps and suggested locations.' Also, each Team was given a 90 minute training session in the days before the PIT Count.
The complete data report from Texas Homeless Network will be received in late March or early April. This data becomes the official data on homelessness for Hays County for 2024. Organizations are able to use this data to support grant applications and other funding or supportive service requests. The count takes place all over the United Sates during the same week in January.
Reed said, 'Survey Team volunteers were able to select from several donated supplies to be given out to the people they engaged with.' Those supplies included string bags filled with toiletries, protein snacks, water bottles, mylar blankets, socks, caps, gloves, scarves and sack lunches. The homeless were also invited to a hot lunch at Southside Community Center provided by Nutty Brown HEB with desserts donated by volunteers at the First Baptist Church in San Marcos.
Red identifying vests were hand sewn and donated by the San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (SMUUF) Sewing Guild. Hot coffee and giant cookies to perk up the volunteer Survey Teams before they set off on their three hour shifts were donated by SMUUF member Kyle Mylius, owner of The Coffee Bar and The Root Cellar.
Reed express gratitude for all the other donors who helped make this PIT Count of the homeless population a success --- Salvation Army, Hays County Food Bank, Wesley Chapel AME Church, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Deborah Carter with San Marcos Public Library, Doug Mudd with Community Action and Rev. Joshua Sutherlun with First Presbyterian Church San Marcos.
Article provided by the Homeless Coalition of Hays County. For more information contact Jeannie Lewis, Homeless Coalition Organizing Committee, at [email protected] or (512) 353-2872.
