CLEARWATER, Fla. — Advocates for the homeless held their annual Point in Time Count in Pinellas County Thursday.

It's a way to gauge community need and determine where resources are most in demand.

What You Need To Know

  • The Homeless Leadership Alliance of Pinellas held its annual Point in Time Count Thursday

  • The count helps bring in federal dollars to combat homelessness

  • More than 350 volunteers were deployed countywide to meet with homeless individuals and fill out surveys

  • Alliance data shows a steady decline in homelessness since 2016, but a recent federal report signals work is needed to help the county's homeless veteran and family populations

"This count is critical to our community," said Victoria Kelly, senior manager of organizational advancement and strategy for the Homeless Leadership Alliance of Pinellas, Inc. "The data that our volunteers are collecting when they do these surveys, it helps bring in over $6 million, or about $6 million, for our community. That money goes towards affordable housing and supportive services."

Kelly said more than 350 volunteers were deployed countywide to try to make contact with homeless individuals and ask them to participate in the survey.

“I asked if you were a veteran, right?” Kathleen Beckman asked one woman who came out for an early evening meal at First United Methodist Church.

The city council member and mayoral candidate spent the afternoon asking questions like that.

“Where did you sleep last night? Are you a veteran? How many days, weeks, months have you been homeless?” Beckman listed.

She said it’s easier to find people at morning and evening meals like the one at the church, but she also logged three hours in the area of Fort Harrison Avenue and Cleveland Street, trying to talk with homeless on the street. She said her group of five volunteers spoke with about ten people during that time. Among the questions they asked — how did they come to be homeless?

“A lot of them are, you know, it was a financial situation. The one woman had a disability,” Beckman said.

Kelly said last year's Point in Time Count identified 640 unsheltered people experiencing homelessness. Alliance data shows Pinellas has seen a steady decline in homeless numbers since 2016.

"I'm happy to say that 2022 and 2023's numbers were really, really similar, despite the fact that we actually surveyed more of Pinellas County in 2023 than we had in years past. I'm really hopeful that this year is going to be the same even though we are out in more parts of Pinellas County and we are reaching more members of our community," said Kelly.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. It compares Point in Time Count data from communities nationwide. Pinellas ranked fifth among continuums of care from areas of similar size in the number of all people experiencing homelessness (2,144 people), second in families with children experiencing homelessness (506 people) and first in homeless veterans (292 people).

"That, to me, is striking," said Beckman. "It's something we really need to be intentional and work on and reach out to those veterans who have specific needs and wraparound services and make strides on that."

"We know we need to target our resources and our outreach efforts toward those populations," said Kelly.

Beckman said she plans to bring up this year's Point in Time Count during a work session on Monday, though results will take a while to come back.