|
Since 2007, CT Counts has mobilized non-profits, local and state government agencies, and hundreds of concerned citizens from every region of the state to gather critical data in order to inform efforts to prevent and end homelessness. During these last three years, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness along with the Reaching Home Campaign and the Corporation for Supportive Housing has partnered with the University of Pennsylvania Cartographic Modeling Lab and the Center for Urban Community Services Housing Resource Center (CUCS) for assistance in organizing a statewide count of homeless people. The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness provided statewide coordination of the 2009 count initiative as well as lead authorship on this CT Counts 2009 report; prior reports were authored chiefly by CUCS.
Connecticut 's inaugural statewide homeless count using consistent data collection methods occurred on January 30, 2007. One year later, on January 30, 2008, communities across Connecticut conducted their second count of people living in emergency shelters, in transitional housing programs, in the woods, on the streets, and in cars or other unsheltered locations. Now in its third consecutive year, CT Counts 2009 is the first of these initiatives with the ability to begin to contextualize some of the findings in order to observe emerging patterns, make informed comparisons, and use this materializing knowledge to advise solutions and policies relating to homelessness.
Since 2003, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has required applicants for federal homeless assistance grants to report the number of people who are homeless in their communities at a particular time. HUD currently requires that communities conduct a point-in-time count during the last week of January. Collecting reliable baseline data is essential to understanding the causes of homelessness and designing effective interventions to help homeless people rebuild their lives. CT Counts continues to collect annual data in order to better understand the dynamic causes of homelessness, to evaluate the effectiveness of programs serving homeless people and, ultimately, to track progress towards ending homelessness in Connecticut.
|
