The document provides information and guidelines for volunteers conducting a re-count of the homeless population in Hillsborough County, Florida on April 9, 2013 from 4-8pm, as the January 2013 count showed an unrealistic decrease; volunteers will be deployed across survey areas to conduct in-person interviews using a shortened survey to obtain a more accurate count of the total number of homeless individuals.

1. Tampa/Hillsborough County
Continuum of Care
2013 Homeless Re-Count
Volunteer Training
Organized by
The Homeless Coalition of
Hillsborough County
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2. WHAT IS THE HOMELESS POINT IN TIME
COUNT?
“ the number of people who are
homeless at a single point in time,
usually one day or one night”
(Burt,1996).
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3. Why are we doing a re-count?
Special approval from the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has
been received for our community to do the
recount.
The January homeless count produced an
unrealistic decrease in the literally homeless
population of Hillsborough county, showing a
nearly 50% overall decrease. Several reasons
have been identified as affecting the count data,
including:
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4. Re- Count Continued
 encampments that were known to exist just weeks prior to
the January count were abandoned and/or completely
gone; many of these areas also had newly posted no
trespassing signs
 some individuals uncounted in January, refused to
participate complete the survey, stating it was too long
(the recount will utilize an abbreviated version of the
survey form)
 front line service providers, when comparing data from
January 2011 and January 2013 reported a slight
decrease in demand for their services; but not anywhere
near a 50% decrease.
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5. SURVEY AREAS
All of Hillsborough County
• The County is divided into four districts
• Each District will be divided into 4
regions
• Each region will be defined by streets
and landmarks
• Each region will have a deployment site
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6. HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
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7. LOCATIONS
• Shelters • Streets
• Service Providers • Parking Lots
• Churches • Woods
• Down Town • Camps
• Libraries • Meal Sites
• Day Labor Sites
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8. METHODS
• Physical Count
• Through Interview
• Data Analysis
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12. PROCEDURES
• Survey Teams
• Deployment Centers
• Guides (when numbers allow)
• Count
• Surveys
• Command Center
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13. LIMITATIONS
The primary limitation of this method is
under-counting, for it is nearly impossible
to count ALL of the homeless people in a
community in one day.
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14. INTERVIEWER GUIDELINES
• Informal, flexible, sensitive, and objective
• Friendly conversational tone
• Assurance of confidentiality
• Follow survey wording
• Explain questions
• Personal safety
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15. HUD DEFINITION
A person is considered homeless only when he/she
resides in one of the places described below:
• sleeping in an emergency shelter;
• sleeping in places not meant for human habitation, such as
cars, parks, sidewalks, or abandoned or condemned
buildings;
• spending a short time (30 consecutive days or less) in a
hospital or other institution, but ordinarily sleeping in the types
of places mentioned above;
• living in transitional/supportive housing but having come from
streets or emergency shelters;
• being evicted within a week from a private dwelling unit and
having no subsequent residence identified and lacking the
resources and support networks needed to obtain access to
housing; or
• being discharged from an institution and having no
subsequent residence identified and lacking the resources
and support networks needed to obtain access to housing.
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16. Chronic Homeless
 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term `chronically homeless'
means, with respect to an individual or family, that the
individual or family—
 (i) is homeless and lives or resides in a place not meant
for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an emergency
shelter;
 (ii) has been homeless and living or residing in a place
not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an
emergency shelter continuously for at least 1 year or on
at least 4 separate occasions in the last 3 years; and
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17. Chronic Homeless Cont
 (iii) has an adult head of household (or a minor head of
household if no adult is present in the household) with a
diagnosable substance use disorder, serious mental
illness, developmental disability, post traumatic stress
disorder, cognitive impairments resulting from a brain
injury, or chronic physical illness or disability, including
the co-occurrence of 2 or more of those conditions.
 (B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—A person who currently lives or
resides in an institutional care facility, including a jail, substance
abuse or mental health treatment facility, hospital or other similar
facility, and has resided there for fewer than 90 days shall be
considered chronically homeless if such person met all of the
requirements described in subparagraph (A) prior to entering that
facility. 17

18. WHO NOT TO COUNT:
1. Anyone with a fixed regular night
time residence including - Formerly
homeless, residing in Section 8
SRO, Shelter Plus Care,
Permanent Housing
2. Children or Youth residing in foster
care or group homes.
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19. DATE & TIME
Volunteers will conduct the Survey on
Tuesday – April 09, 2013
4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
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20. HOW TO STAY INVOLVED
Visit our web site
www.homelessofhc.org
For a list of Coalition
Member Agencies
And Contacts
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