Dozens of homeless citizens began lining up at the Plant City Planteen at 3 p.m.on Thurs., Feb. 22, much like they do every evening, to be served a hot meal, provided by local churches, families and service organizations, at 5 p.m.and fellowship with others experiencing homelessness.
Unlike every other day, though, on that day volunteers were on hand to conduct the Point-In-Time (PIT) Count, offering a snapshot of the scale and severity of homelessness within the city limits.
Earlier in the day, a handful of volunteers had spanned across the city, visiting a number of known sites where homeless people congregate.
One volunteer was Kimberly Kitchen, founder of Generations Renewed, a local nonprofit that provides free career training and job placement and other services. “I’ve been here the whole day since 8 a.m. and I probably counted about 20 or 25 people experiencing homelessness,” she said.
Not everyone was willing to complete the survey, which included questions about age, race, gender, military service, duration of homelessness and diagnosed medical conditions. “I still think that’s a good amount considering some people may have some type of police issue or they’re concerned about giving out their information or they just don’t trust people,” she said.
Most people were willing to share their stories with Kitchen, who is a familiar face as she works to help them break the cycle of homelessness.
“I think the story that really impacted me today was a married couple that was homeless because the husband lost his job,” she said. The family had been homeless for two months. “They had savings but it wasn’t enough to carry them for long because of the high cost of rent and so they ended up homeless,” she said. “He just found a job so prayerfully in the next few months they’ll be back on their feet.”
Kitchen said that finding a job is crucial because when they have a job, it puts them in a position to find housing, instead of sleeping in places unfit for habitation like in parks, on church steps or in cars. So far, in the last two years, she’s worked to get seven people off Plant City’s streets. “We help them get to their greater, and sometimes it’s easier and sometimes it’s harder but we’ve never told someone we couldn’t help them,” she said.
One certainty is every person experiencing homelessness has their own story and no two are the same. While some willingly choose to live outdoors or struggle with mental health diagnoses, each have their own story about how they landed in the situation. One man, living in his car, chose to care for his beloved pet over meeting his own needs. Some hope for a better life, a life off the streets.
Antonio Byrd, Chief Operating Officer of Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative (THHI), said the count was a success, helped by the dinner provided by Fred’s Market that brought homeless residents together in one place to make the count easier. “It’s important we educate people about what we’re doing to address homelessness and get more resources in Plant City by expanding service providers.”
Bryd said housing will always be an immediate concern. “Emergency shelters are single-night focused but emergency bridge housing helps move people into transitional short-term housing and then hopefully out of shelters and into homes,” he said.
Data from Plant City’s PIT Count will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and will be used to establish the dimensions of the problem of homelessness and help policymakers and program administrators track progress toward the goal of ending homelessness. On the local level, the count helps communities plan services and programs to appropriately address local needs, measure progress in decreasing homelessness and identify strengths and gaps in a community’s current homelessness assistance system.