COLUMBUS, Ga. ( WRBL ) — The Department of Veterans Affairs released a statement earlier this week which showed veteran homelessness in Georgia down by nearly 8% since last year. WRBL spoke to local experts to find out what that looks like in Columbus.
The VA’s numbers come from the “Point in Time” (PIT) count, an annual national effort to count the number those experiencing homelessness. Counts are done on a single night, or small collection of nights in January each year.
United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley Vice President Pat Frey works directly with the PIT survey. She said the PIT count “isn’t definitive” but it can show trends.
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Numbers from past Columbus PIT surveys show rises and falls in the number of homeless individuals over the past decades. In 2015, there was a high of 37 homeless vets, roughly 10% of the total homeless count of 371.
That number hovered between 5- to 6% in the following years, hitting another high in 2020 with 21 homeless veterans making up nearly 8.5% of the total local homeless population (249).