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Learn More About the Housing Inventory Count

BY JUDITH TACKETT

We can expect the Point In Time (PIT) Count to be released any day now (as of this writing it has not been published). And once that happens, all of us interested in homelessness will mull over the numbers the local government releases about that one-night homelessness count in January. The news media will pick up a story or two, and activists will loudly proclaim how inaccurate a picture the PIT count provides.

But what we will not do is look at the Housing Inventory Count and analyze the trends of our homelessness approach to assess how these two snapshot data points could help us examine the bigger picture, especially in combination with other data points like the Homeless Management Information System and the Local Education Agencies (LEA) data on homelessness.

That’s why in this column, I decided to talk a little about the Housing Inventory Count, and more specifically, what it could tell us about homelessness in Nashville.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which requires the submission of the annual PIT and Housing Inventory Counts by the end of April, the Housing Inventory Count provides “an inventory of housing conducted annually during the last ten days in January. The reports tally the number of beds and units available on the night designated for the count by program type, and include beds dedicated to serve persons who are homeless as well as persons in Permanent Supportive Housing.”

Specifically, the Housing Inventory County includes emergency shelter, transitional housing (and a program called Safe Haven, which is being phased out over time), as well as permanent housing beds such as rapid re-housing and permanent supportive housing. This inventory is conducted at the same time as the PIT count.

Let’s take a closer look at last year’s Housing Inventory Count data Nashville submitted to HUD. Overall, the Housing Inventory Count is divided into two sections: 1) temporary housing including emergency shelter and transitional housing; and 2) permanent housing including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing and other permanent housing.

Once you look at the Housing Inventory Count, the document will break down the counts per organization for each temporary and permanent intervention. For example, the following information is available for emergency shelter beds.

Now, looking at the 2022 PIT count, it told us that there were 1,037 people experiencing homelessness in emergency shelters on the night of the count. When we look at the above chart of the Housing Inventory Count, we see that we had a total of 1,328 emergency beds around the same time. In addition, we know that the PIT count showed that 634 people were found sleeping outdoors that night.

This information then allows us, as a community, to discuss the following:

• What was our emergency shelter occupancy rate? Quick response: It was 78 percent for the night of the PIT count when we also took that emergency shelter inventory as part of the Housing Inventory Count.

• If all the people sleeping outdoors had come inside, would we have had enough shelter beds? Quick response: No. A simple calculation shows us that we would have lacked 343 emergency shelter beds that night.

Now, to be fair, the evaluation and analysis is a little bit more complex than I have just demonstrated. First of all, I only looked at emergency shelter beds and completely neglected other temporary housing and permanent housing options.

For a more in-depth analysis we would have to look at the eligibility requirements to access shelter beds, people’s barriers to shelters, overall shelter options, availability of other temporary beds, and even permanent housing availability. Furthermore, we know that during the one-night outdoor count, we generally do not find all the people sleeping outdoors. Moreover, the outdoor counts certainly are not measuring episodic homelessness for people who may be sleeping indoors on a friend’s couch or in a motel on the night of the count, but who may be back outdoors the next night. As you can see, other data sources such as the Homeless Management Information System and education system would be helpful to fully evaluate our community approach.

To sum it up, the PIT count tells us about the needs, and the Housing Inventory Count provides critical information to the Continuum of Care about the supplies of beds (temporary and permanent). Together they can provide an overview of the trends and progress of our community’s work to end and prevent homelessness. In reality, we mostly leave that Housing Inventory Count number out of our discussions, which to me means we are not fully invested yet in building a solid system that actually ends homelessness.

In short, homelessness can only end when we give people access to non-time-limited housing units with the right wraparound support to assist people with maintaining their housing. And outdoor homelessness will only end if we have sufficient options for people to shelter indoors from where they can quickly move to permanent housing and/or permanent supportive housing if needed. For many people experiencing homelessness, we are talking about subsidized housing (and let’s not forget, emergency shelters are a form of temporary/interim subsidized housing).

In late April, a local news outlet reported that Mayor John Cooper said 800 places were in the pipeline to house people experiencing homelessness. It was unclear whether that meant temporary or permanent housing. He also announced that Metro would close one or two encampments every month moving forward. Having 800 new units in the pipeline is fantastic and much needed.

However, before we are too eager to shut down encampments, we better ensure that we have the increase in permanent supportive housing in place that we need. Otherwise, politicians, who now are applauding these efforts to shut down encampments, will have to eat their words when they see the revolving door of homelessness spinning out of control.