Just Released: Homelessness in Milwaukee

Every two years the Milwaukee Continuum of Care conducts a Point in Time count of homeless people.  Basically, this is a census — an effort to document the number of homeless people on one specific night – this year January 28, 2009.  Here’s the PDF report:

Milwaukee Point in Time 2009

A cadre of volunteers counts people in shelters, transitional housing programs, and on the street.  The street count is obviously the most difficult.  Conducted throughout the day, volunteers fan out to meal programs, public libraries, and other places or ‘known locations’ where homeless people are known to congregate.

A total of 1,660 homeless adults and children were counted in Milwaukee on January 28, 2009 — this is a significant increase over the 1,470 counted in 2007.  In addition to doing the count, however, volunteers also conducted face to face interviews with 919 homeless adults.  This report provides the results of those surveys.

Also included are comparisons to 2007 and comparisons between several key groups:  male/female, disabled/non-disabled, sheltered/unsheltered, and veterans/non-veterans.  There is a ton of information here for anyone who works with people experiencing homelessness.

Everytime I talk about this report, I say this:  This isn’t everybody! There are thousands more homeless people than could be counted in one night – families doubling up, young people ‘couch surfing’, homeless people living on the street in places volunteers simply couldn’t access that one night of the count.

So this report is just a snapshot — but it’s a good one.  The interviewers did an amazing job of reaching people and asking them to share their information.  Happy to answer any questions – just contact me at jwilberg@wi.rr.com.