Opening Doors of Northwest Florida revealed at its April general coalition meeting that the 2023 Point-in-Time count tallied 1,180 homeless individuals in the two-county area, a 62% jump from last year and the highest number since 2007. The previous record was 1,160 in 2010.
The count is an annual exercise done in January that assesses the local homeless population. The count is conducted in communities across the country, with the data then reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the past, HUD has used the information when determining its fund allocations to address the needs of homeless communities in varying areas, but Opening. Doors PIT coordinator Martika Baker says that is no longer the case.
Baker told the participants at the meeting, “HUD does not award us based on the number of people we count for the PIT. The goal for communities is to identify the number of people who are homeless, and we build a collaboration plan to address homelessness in our community.”
The “we” is the Continuum of Care that Opening Doors runs for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. The CoC is charged with establishing and operating a coordinated entry system that provides a process for conducting comprehensive entries of housing and services needs for individuals and families.
Last year, many questioned Opening Doors’ PIT count. Community Health CEO Chandra Smiley told the Board of County Commissioners that her organization served the health needs of upwards of 7,000 homeless people in the area in 2021 and expressed doubts about the Open Doors’ 2022 count of 727.
The additional help from the county and groups like Community Health might have made a difference this year, but Smiley still believes the number is low.
She told Inweekly, “It’s way understated. We had a more coordinated effort in Escambia County, but Santa Rosa is way understated. And we didn’t even really get to the north part of Escambia County like we really should have. So, it’s still significantly low.”