Jen Stasch, director of Partners in Care, is about to embark on the nonprofit’s major project of the year: the Point-In-Time count of the homeless population, which will take place Jan. 22.
But homelessness is a principal focus of her attention, year round, and she hears opinions on the subject from everyone. This, Stasch said, includes her college-age daughter, who sees the sweeps of encampments and points out to Mom that they should be left alone.
The signups for volunteers needed to canvass neighborhoods and conduct the count has just begun. Surveyors can visit the PIC website (www.partnersincareoahu.org) to register.
There they’ll also find data collected in the past decade of counts, information that, Stasch added, basically spikes the “myth” that many of the homeless come here from the mainland — the population is overwhelmingly local, with many children, more than half of whom are Native Hawaiians.
Stasch, 47, was born in Lompoc, Calif., and holds a master’s in public health from Loma Linda University and a law degree from the University of San Francisco.
It was in the Bay Area that she first encountered people living in the streets and remarked on it to a long-time San Franciscan.
“She was well-intentioned, but she said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, pretty soon you won’t even notice them anymore.’ … And I remember saying to myself at that moment … ‘I will never be that person,’” she recalled.
Stasch acknowledged the problem’s complexity: The longer people remain on the streets, the more resistant to outreach they become. That is not, however, a reason to give up, she said.
“We need to find a happy medium,” she said. “Pointing the blame to the person that we say is service-resistant — ‘There’s no hope, we’re never going to reach them, it’s generational’ — to me, and I think to most people, that’s an excuse.
“And what it does is it basically allows us to write that person off, and take the responsibility off of the community for serving those that are most vulnerable.”
Question: What is the purpose of the Point-In-Time count of the homeless population?
Answer: The annual Point-In-Time (PIT) Homeless Count is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Honolulu Continuum of Care, and is a count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night in January.
The PIT Count provides the community and homeless assistance providers with data needed to understand the number and characteristics of persons who are homeless at one point in time. The PIT Count also provides policy makers with data needed to effectively allocate resources aimed at ending and preventing homelessness.
Q: What would you say to a volunteer to explain why they’re needed?
A: Absolutely. And it’s also to help us understand the problem. It helps us understand those we’re serving, and it also helps us to deliver better services. If we can answer questions and we can collect more information about those in particular that are living unsheltered, and have been living unsheltered for an extended period of time, it will help us formulate effective solutions.
We’re all quite aware of those individuals that have reported living unsheltered for over a decade, in some cases. And so I think it’s really important for us to not necessarily dismiss those experiencing homelessness long-term as service-resistant. The onus is on the community to figure out how we can better serve them.
Q: Many of those who left when Mother Waldron Park closed just moved to Kakaako Waterfront Park. Aren’t there some who just don’t want to be sheltered?
A: I’m not sure that “want,” or a personal choice, is a fair statement. What I would say is that they have probably got to a place in life where they probably don’t even believe they deserve to be serviced.
Q: Really?
A: When I hear people on the front page of the paper saying things to the fact that “I’m a bum,” “I need help” … to me what I heard there was, “I don’t believe I matter anymore, and I don’t believe that I deserve anything better than this for myself.” …
I often say to those I am talking to in the community, if we were to walk through Chinatown, and we were to see a dog or a cat in the condition that we see many of our populations experiencing homelessness, most of us would stop. We would stop, we would call the Humane Society or some kind of animal rescue. We wouldn’t ignore that.
But for some reason we have no problem just walking past a 73-year-old person, an 80-year-old person or even a young person who’s clearly suffering, and needs our help. …
One, it helps us cope with the issue by not seeing them.
Q: By not looking at them?
A: Exactly. But I’m not sure that’s something we should use as a coping mechanism.
Q: Some faulted the accuracy of the Point in Time count in the past year. Was that fair, and have any problems been addressed?
A: PIT is a census of a single point in time in our community, not a comprehensive needs assessment. The data and information collected during the count only provides a single snapshot in time for those persons experiencing homelessness. Information collected by service providers in delivering services to those experiencing homelessness is collected each and every day. Also, we collect limited information during the point in time count, and should expect persons to refuse to answer questions or to be surveyed.
Q: Have there been any changes in the volunteer corps for this year, whether in numbers, training, approach or anything else?
A: We will implement the 2018 count similar to in 2017 with regional implementation on Oahu, and centralized volunteer recruitment and training, and data entry and analysis. We will implement an expanded survey in parts of Regions 1, 3, 4 and 6 with additional questions about pets, sexual orientation, gender identity, and domestic violence. We hope to have a report for the community in late March or early April.
Q: What data besides the census tally itself do you gather from the encampments, if any?
A: PIC invests close to $175,000 per year in the state’s Homeless Information Management System where we have a By Name List (BNL) of all those persons and families experiencing homelessness who have connected to services or are waiting for housing resources.
The BNL and other information collected while delivering services helps PIC develop recommendations for programs and services to fill the needs within Oahu’s Continuum of Care.
Q: How concerned are you about cuts in federal aid that could be forthcoming, given the tax revenue reductions that are likely?
A: Very concerned. Partners in Care directly oversees and allocates federal resources in the community to fund over 850 housing vouchers to those experiencing homelessness.
Most of these housing vouchers are supporting individuals and families with disabilities who need long-term permanent supportive housing. During the 2017 PIT Count, close to 5,000 homeless persons were counted on Oahu.
Q: What advice do you have for volunteers doing the outreach, doing the count?
A: One, I’d say only volunteer to be a surveyor if you’re comfortable. That it is not an easy thing to go out and survey people on the night of Point in Time, or during the week following. You can come across people that don’t want to answer questions. …
You have to be comfortable having a conversation with another human being that might be different than yourself, that might have odor coming from them, that might not speak the same way that you do, that might not have the same mannerisms that you do.
You have to have the ability to show empathy to that person, and to understand the purpose of why we’re doing this. And the purpose, again, is primarily to collect information, to see how we’re measuring ourselves as a community.
Is the population increasing? Is it decreasing? Are we seeing more children? Are we seeing more kupuna? Are we seeing more Native Hawaiians living unsheltered?
And all of that information helps us, as a community, plan and provide better services to those who are experiencing homelessness — which is what we need to do to resolve this problem.
