Local Point in Time homeless count set for Thursday

Erig said that the homelessness coalition is responsible for four Central Texas counties, which includes Bell, Coryell, Hamilton and Lampasas counties.

“Our role is to conduct the count, organize the county and then report the count numbers up to the Texas Homeless Network for the state, which then in turn reports it up to the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” Erig said earlier this month. “Our numbers can affect everything from the amount of funding the federal government pushes down to our communities to the number of housing vouchers that are available in our region.”

Each year the Point in Time count sees volunteers roam the county, stopping at places with the most homeless people, to talk with them and get their information.

This year, as in previous years, volunteers are expected to hand out bags of needed supplies to those they talk to. The bags are usually filled with various hygiene products.

Erig said that he expects this year’s Point in Time count to be the most important of the past decade due to how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the counting process.

“Trying to compare last year’s number to what is happening this year is not relevant because COVID-19 just started lifting last year,” Erig said. “So this year, people in the business of helping the homeless think that those numbers are going to go up. That is because there was a significant undercount previously.”