The last few classes have focused on various methods for counting the homeless. In order to receive federal funding, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires counties to count their homeless populations every two years. Each county comes up with their own funds and methodology to complete the homeless counts. Some counties make the task a community effort to get the most accurate results while others put less effort into the surveys. Because there is not a nation-wide method or funding for these surveys the accuracy of these results are not always reflective of actual homeless populations.

There are problems with such a flexible system for reports.With most methodologies used, it is unlikely that the survey truly reflects the entire homeless population. HUD’s restrictive definitions of what ‘homeless’ is also plays into inaccurate representations. Despite these issues, it is important to count the number of homeless people. These HUD requirements make it so that these counties are unable to ignore the homeless in their areas. The resulting statistics for each county makes it apparent that something needs to be done to assist the homeless. These statistics make the phenomenon of homelessness seem extremely overwhelming. It seems hard to understand where to start as we have found out there are many reasons and structural failures as the why people end up homeless. On the flip side I feel like such reports and statistics can be a wake up call and a motivating factor. Individuals, such as ourselves, can be inspired to volunteer and communities may decide they need better programs.