Frederick County nonprofits are worried federal methods of counting unhoused people may provide an incomplete picture at the local level when compared to state counts.
The federal point-in-time (PIT) survey is conducted each winter. The data determines how much funding local jurisdictions get from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to address unhousedness at the local level.
Frederick County sends out surveyors to check shelters, transitional housing and to search for people living in the elements. Currently, the federal government recognizes Frederick has 250 unhoused residents, with more than 1,000 unhoused living in Maryland.
In contrast, the McKinney Vento Act, which protects students and ensures they have access to education, considers someone as housing insecure if they lack adequate nighttime residence. If a student is living in a motel, doubled up with another family or couch surfing, they can qualify for McKinney Vento.
Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) keeps an ongoing lookout throughout the year for students who may be facing housing insecurity. According to the Maryland Department of education, there are more than 1,000 students facing housing insecurity in Frederick, with more than 20,000 across the state.
Possible Flaws
Nick Brown is the Executive Director of Beyond Shelter Frederick. Beyond Shelter is a local nonprofit dedicated to helping households escape the cycle of unhousedness, and prevent others from entering it.
The PIT count takes place on a single night during the last 10 days of January. Brown is concerned about the count’s infrequency. “I’ve always wanted to go out multiple times in a year and substantiate across seasons,” Brown explained. “That count happens in the winter and, great, what does it look like in the spring, summer and [so] on?”
For Brown, the cold weather plays a significant role in the difficulty of the count. If there was ever a season where someone could temporarily get off the streets, Brown said, it would be during a holiday snowstorm. “Because of that, they are less likely to engage with the services and where the people who are going to be doing the enumeration may be,” Brown said.
Brown remembers in eight of the last 10 years, it snowed on the night of the PIT count.
While the counting process is becoming more digital, Brown explained, there is still room for error. Variations between the count year after year can sometimes call for additional verification. Brown says it's hard to tell if a jump in the count is valid, or human error.
The Conflict
Melissa Muntz is the Executive Director of the Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership of Frederick County, also known as SHIP. Her organization works closely with FCPS to ensure students facing housing insecurity are connected to the resources they need.
In her experience, Muntz says most of the students she works with are accompanied minors. That means for every child facing housing insecurity, there may be one or two parents or guardians also at risk.
When a student lacks adequate nighttime residence, they can often find themselves sleeping in unsafe places, Muntz said. “We had a student who was sleeping in someone’s closet while there were twelve other people in the one room attached to that closet,” Muntz explained. “In that small space, she does not have the ability to properly access her education and many other things.”
Muntz clarified the PIT count looks for those who are truly unhoused, living on the street and with no place to call their home. In contrast, that leaves many families living on the edge unable to access services that could keep them housed. “That is problematic because providers have to tell people, ‘because you have not slept outside and been at your lowest point, we can't help you,’” Muntz explained.
Nick Brown works closely with households already facing homelessness and with those who are trying to avoid it. He says it's always easier to help families stay housed than it is to get them rehoused. Yet, there isn't always the time or resources to go around. “Best case scenario says everyone who needs, has, and the reality is, the most critical get the most time,” Brown clarified. “We have a limited amount of resources to address the time we have with that family and we try to make as big of an impact as quickly as we can because the next [family] is right behind it.”
Working Towards Solutions
To address these problems, Brown says United Way is partnering with other organizations to create a program to fast track families to the resources they need. SHIP, the Spanish Speaking Communities of Maryland, FCPS and the Department of Housing and Community Development are also participating. “A pilot program to avoid the emergency, get the critical need addressed as quickly as possible, to allow us to know what’s coming and be able to respond before it becomes a white hot issue that we all have to respond to,” Brown said.
While solutions are being sought locally, Muntz points to the federal level as a source of change. A bill by U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland might change the way HUD operates. “Senator Alsobrooks has introduced a bill to change the HUD definition of homelessness to include more broadly the McKinney Vento definition,” Muntz said. “Because for young people, the ability to connect them with HUD [programming] can be extremely difficult.”
The bill, known as the Homeless Children and Youth Act, was introduced in May. It would help protect the four-point-two million youth and young adults facing being unhoused in the U.S. Data collected as part of the bill will be published so communities can better direct funding to where it needs to go.
