homeless enumeration 2018 -...

HOMELESS

ENUMERATION 2018HALDIMAND & NORFOLK

HOUSING SERVICES DEPARTMENT

JUNE 13, 2018 – Jarvis Community Centre

Serving the community in the areas of public health, social services, children’s services, housing and long-term care.

HOMELESS ENUMERATION 2018

JUNE 13, 2018

COMMUNITY DEBRIEF & CALL TO ACTION

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Provincial Guidelines

• January 2017 – Ministry of Housing (MHO)released “Guidelines for Service ManagerHomeless Enumeration” in an effort to endchronic homelessness by 2025.

• All Service Managers are legislated to conductan enumeration of those experiencinghomelessness in their communities every 2years starting 2018.

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What is Homeless Enumeration?

The measurement of the number of people experiencing homelessness over a specific period of time.

It is intended to:

• Help Service Managers and MHO better understand the scale and nature of homelessness locally and across the province

• Inform current and future program policy and program design, including a by-name list and evidence-based data

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Purpose & Principles of

Homeless Enumeration

Purpose Principles

Enumeration

Continuous

improvement

Tracking

progress &

trends

Snapshot of

homelessness

Assessing

impact of

services and

initiatives

Outcomes-focused

People-centred

Partnerships & Relationship

building

Comparability

Rigorous approach

Balance

Local flexibility

Build on Success

Enumeration

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SCOPE OF ENUMERATION

UnshelteredEmergency Sheltered

Provisionally Sheltered

• Sleeping rough • Staying in • Staying in on the streets, shelters, transitional parks, camps, including shelters, vehicles or Violence Against correctional abandoned Women shelters facilities, buildings and motels hospitals/health,

mental health facilities, detox, staying in other peoples homes.

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Summary of Enumeration

MethodologiesPoint-in-time (PIT) Registry Week Period Prevalence

Count (PPC)

Description Provide a snapshot of the A coordinated, multi-day A coordinated multi-day

population experiencing count of people experiencing count that captures the

homelessness on one day of homelessness. incidence of homelessness

the year. over a period of time.

Objective To capture numbers and To collect information and To collect demographic

anonymous basic create a prioritized by-name information, reasons for

demographics of people list for access to housing and homelessness, and referral

experiencing homelessness supports for persons patterns. This method is

at a single point in time. experiencing homelessness. more likely to include hidden

homelessness because it

casts a wider net.

Length of Time One day of the year Multi-day (i.e. one week) Multi-day (i.e. one week)

Data Collection Data is collected by Volunteers administer survey Data is collected by

volunteer canvassers who (pre-screening & triage tool) accessing people

physically locate, count, that collects personal data experiencing homelessness

collect survey data from and ranks participants on through service organization

people experiencing vulnerability index. Data is such as community meal

homelessness. Surveys also collected from people programs, drop-in centres,

carried out at emergency experiencing homelessness and emergency shelters.

shelters. VAW shelters, on the streets, in shelters,

service agencies, magnet magnet events, and

events. community-identified

spaces. 7


The Universe of All

Experiencing Homelessness

Provided Consent

& Know Name

Engaged in Services

(Active)

Imminently House-able

(All paperwork in order)

Those That You Know Exist

(though may not know name)

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Registry Week – May 7th-11th, 2018

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• Survey completion– a pre-screening and triage tool – that collects personal data and ranks participants in a vulnerability index: • information can be used to inform decisions about how

best to refer individuals experiencing homelessness to housing resources as well as to prioritize individuals for accessing housing and other supports on a “By-name List”.

• outreach is used to keep the list up-to-date and provide real time information about homelessness in the community


ENUMERATION IN

HALDIMAND & NORFOLK

What did counting look like in two rural

municipalities spanning large geographic areas?

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Our Plan

Haldimand

& Norfolk

• Identifying survey site locations throughout both County’s

• Developing and assigning survey teams to each location

• Enlisting community partners to support surveying

• Creating communications for public and agency audiences

• Coordinating and leading the Registry Week event including the volunteers and agency partners

• Reporting our findings, locally & provincially

• Data analysis and policy / program design recommendations

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Who Helped Us?

Community Partners

Haldimand & Norfolk Women’s

Services

Hope Pharmacy

Water St. Clinic

Youth Unlimited

Holmes House

Norfolk Pregnancy Centre

Haldimand & Norfolk Social Services

Canadian Mental Health Association

Haldimand & Norfolk

Salvation Army – Dunnville

Norfolk OPP

Norfolk Help Centre

Haldimand Public Library

Norfolk Public Library

Haldimand & Norfolk Literacy Council

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What Did It Look Like?

• In addition to Council presentations, two public media releases advertising

the event

• 5-days of enumeration from 6:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Mon. to Fri., May 7th-11th

• Locations: Simcoe 2 ½ days, Delhi 2 – ½ days, Dunnville 1 full day and

Caledonia, Hagersville, and Cayuga 1 day

• Enumerated at 44 physical locations using 14 volunteer teams on the streets

• 13 Agency partners participated by enumerating throughout the week within

their regular service delivery

• We had two Housing Staff supporting all the volunteers throughout and one

Enumeration support staff providing trauma counselling if required.

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What Did It Look Like?• Two-part survey:

1. Ministry of Housing mandatory questions (Core)

2. Series of assessment tool questions measuring for “level of acuity” or

“depth of need” to prioritize future service (VI-SPDAT)

• Participants asked screening questions to ensure only those falling into the

definition of unsheltered, provisionally sheltered, or emergency sheltered at

this point in time were surveyed

• 300 participant gift bags for those who completed surveys

• Every participant that completed a survey received a $10 Tim Horton’s gift

card

• 6 sponsors provide merchandise for the bags or space for headquarters in-

kind.

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THANK-YOU SPONSORS

• Haldimand & Norfolk Social Services & Housing

• Haldimand & Norfolk Health Unit

• Fastenal Canada

• Tim Hortons – Whitehorse Plaza

• Haldimand County Public Library

• Norfolk County Public Library

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How Did Enumeration Work?

1. Enumeration street teams worked shifts throughout designated areas

2. Agency partners completed survey’s

3. Volunteers approached anyone they came in contact with to survey

4. Screening questions asked -- “screened in” or “screened out”

5. “Screened out” -- tallied as contacted/approached, but not homeless.

6. “Screened in” --“consent” to continue survey.

7. Participants who completed some portion of the survey was given a gift

bag.

8. Completed surveys returned to Enumeration Headquarters where the

data could be input and analyzed.

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HOW MUCH DID WE DO? HOW WELL DID WE DO IT?

79 Full survey’s were completed 91% completion rate of those

54 in Norfolk – 25 in Haldimand surveyed completed the entire survey

(65 Adult/14 Youth)

72 partial surveys completed

91 Volunteers* signed up, 5 didn’t 95% volunteer follow through rate

complete training or participate

86 Volunteers trained, 2 withdrew 2% drop out rate

after training

84 Volunteers participated May 7-11. 93% overall participation

- 10 Community volunteers

- 24 Community agency staff

- 50 Health & Social Services &

Housing staff

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HOW MUCH DID WE DO? HOW WELL DID WE DO IT?

300 Gift bags assembled, 131 returned 43% return. Bags re-distributed for use.

25 items per bag at a cost of $21.65 per

bag

Bags produced under budget

Simcoe and Delhi locations enumerated

over 3 days

30% of Norfolk population area covered

Caledonia, Cayuga, Hagersville – 1 day

Dunnville – 1 day

40% of Haldimand population area

covered

35% total population area covered over

Haldimand and Norfolk

30% population area coverage required by

MHO for enumeration standard

20 partner meetings 12 participating

partners

60% agency participation rate

2 press releases prior to event; social

media campaign; 2 staff presentations; 1

community engagement; 2 Council

presentations; 1 community presentation

Survey circulated to volunteers for

feedback. Data being collected and will

be incorporated for next enumeration.

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Data Analysis

• Org Code completing data analysis

• Fulsome report to be completed and

submitted to Ministry of Housing by

November 2018

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Here’s What We Learned So Far:

0-24 25-49 50+

Average Age

DEMOGRAPHICS

Average Ages:

• 2/3 of respondents were 25-49 years old

• 20% of respondents were 50+ or 0-24 years old

Cultural Identity:

• 15% of respondents identified as Indigenous or Aboriginal

• 82% of respondents identified as white

• 3% of respondents identified as “other”, “declined”, or “don’t know”

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Here’s What We Learned So Far:Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation:

• Half of respondents identified as male and

half female

• 1% identified as trans or two-spirit

• 87% identified as heterosexual

• 8% identified as one of LBGTQ

When asked other basic demographic

question……

• 95% identified as English speaking

• ¾ identified as single or with a partner

• 5% declare military service

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Gender Orientation Language Family Status

Demographics

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HISTORY OF HOMELESSNESS

Past Experience with Homelessness

• Half of respondents first experienced homelessness before the age of 24

• 1/3 report being in child welfare or foster care system, and of those, half report being out of the system 20+ years

• ¾ of respondents have been homeless 1 or 2 times over the past year

• 1/3 report being homeless at least 6 to 12 months each time

• 1/3 report using an emergency shelter in the past year

0 20 40 60 80

Age 1st Homeless

Homeless 1-2 x in past year

Homeless 6-12 mo/eachtime

Used emergency shelter inpast year

History of Homelessness

History of Homelessness

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Current Homelessness

• 1/4 of respondents were in an Emergency Shelter the night before

• 1/3 stayed at a friend or family members place

• 1/3 cite addiction or substance use as reason for most current situation

• 1/3 cite either relationship breakdown or inability to pay rent

• More than half report Social Assistance (Ontario Works) as their current

source of income, or have no income.

• 1/3 are on a disability income of some kind

• Only 2.5% list seniors benefits as their source of income

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CHALLENGES & BARRIERS TO STABLE HOUSING

• ¾ declare mental health issues as a barrier

• More than half cite addiction issues as a challenge

• 80% declare physical health/disability or chronic or acute

medical condition

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Next steps Data analysis – Org Code in the process of conducting deeper analysis

and finalizing report

Report to Council and Ministry of Housing – Fall 2018

Follow up with high acuity surveys – Process for Co-ordinated Entry

HIFIS – By-Name list management

System considerations

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Volunteer Appreciation

We couldn’t have done it

without you!

Thank you to those who participated in

any capacity. For those who helped in

the planning stages, site location,

street teams, agency surveying, gave

general suggestions and anything in

between that I may have asked of you.

This was a huge undertaking for the

first time in our two County’s. We

never do anything alone and our

community will only prosper from all of

our efforts.

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Volunteer FeedbackHere’s what you told us

• 43 Volunteer Survey’s were 100% completed. That is a 51% response

rate.

• 97% of respondents felt they understood the objective of the project

and had enough information provided to participate.

• 92% of respondents understood what they would be doing as a

volunteer and where they would be doing it.

• 92% felt training was sufficient to complete volunteer duties and felt

enough support was provided and easy to contact.

• Majority of respondents felt the training manual was helpful, easy to

understand and complete with information required.

• Less than ¼ of respondents thought the survey packages were confusing

and/or too many pages.

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Volunteer FeedbackComments

• “The enumeration was very well organized”

• “…….role playing would be beneficial in advance” x2

• “I liked having the contact information on the necklace”

• In general many would have liked the training to be more of a practice

environment with more opportunity to review the script and tally

sheet, as well as the two surveys, during training or in the manual prior

to volunteering.

• Survey materials used had mixed reviews. Clipboards were equally

liked or disliked and gift bags were for the most part acceptable in

weight and content.

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Volunteer FeedbackComments

When asked about something learned through the experience?

“The community was appreciative of what we were doing”

“There is a desperate need in our community, more than I thought”

“That there IS a homeless population”

“I learned how invisible homelessness can be if we don’t focus on

understanding it better”

When asked about an unexpected encounter or experience?

“How willing homeless persons were to share their stories”

“The amount of people who thanked us for the job we were doing”

There were lots of comments about the process used and suggestions

about how to do it better next time. All comments and surveys will be

reviewed in moving forward for our 2020 enumeration.30



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Haldimand & NorfolkHousing Department

How can you reach us?

519-426-6170 or905-318-6623 or519-582-3579

www.hnhss.ca

Tricia Givens – Program Manager, Housing Services x3748Louise Lovell –Housing Resource Coordinator x3234 32


homeless enumeration 2018 -...

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