Getting an accurate accounting of Maricopa County’s homeless population can already be a moving target, and this week’s rains are likely to play a role in how many get tallied for the annual point-in-time count.
As storm conditions persisted in the Valley on Tuesday morning, unsheltered individuals sought cover, explained Amy St. Peter, deputy executive director for the Maricopa Association of Governments.
For the hundreds of volunteers who took to the streets early in the morning to tally the number of people experiencing homelessness, it meant finding many who already try to stay hidden from the public eye, said Richard Crews, director of programs for Key Campus, a collection of nonprofits that provide homeless services.
“I think (the rain) makes it more difficult to count because you have to look for people,” he said. “That’s the challenge with the PIT count, you’re looking for people, a population, who know how to hide.”
Several volunteers and board members from Key Campus, formerly known as Human Resources Campus, participated in the count, Crews said. What they noticed, compared with last year, was that while there were fewer people out, there were concentrated pockets of homeless individuals, about 20 to 30 in a group.