BY Bill Reagan
Homelessness is a bit of a slippery thing. I am often asked how many homeless people there are in Harlingen. It is hard to tell. Not all homeless people stay in our shelter. Not all homeless people live on the street.
Some homeless people have been homeless for a long period of time. Others experience homelessness sporadically. For many, homelessness is only a short term setback.
Many homeless people live doubled up with friends and relatives on a short term basis. Most of them find a solution to their homelessness on their own and we never hear about them.
The annual Point in Time Homeless Count gives us a snapshot of homelessness in our community, and throughout the country. The Point in Time occurs on the fourth Thursday of January. Every homeless shelter in the country participates.
Here’s a snapshot of this very fluid population.
Our Cameron County count surveyed 338 people on January 26th. Nine out of ten homeless persons identified in our count were between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-four. Almost eight of ten were male. Ten percent were children. Ninety-four percent of those surveyed were white and eight of ten were Latino. Most of the people interviewed in the Point in Time Count did not spend the previous night in a shelter. Fifty-eight percent stayed in a place not meant for human habitation. That might have been a car, a park or an abandoned building.
About half those counted had were experiencing homelessness for the first time. One in five had experienced two or three episodes of homelessness in the past three years. One fourth reported having been homeless for a year or more.
The median length of homelessness reported in the survey was 7.9 years. The longest reported period of homelessness was thirty-five years!
Unfortunately, most of our homelessness is homegrown. Eighty percent of those surveyed became homeless while living in the Rio Grande Valley.
Happily, only a small percentage of the homeless population surveyed, six percent, were veterans.
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
