On the night of Jan. 29, when providers counted how many people are experiencing homelessness in the Berkshires, temperatures hit a low of 12 degrees.
But shelter workers say the annual point-in-time count, which is used by the government to assess need, might not reflect the reality of the size of the unhoused population because of the cold.
People who can tend to double up with friends and family or splurge on a motel room on cold nights. While providers consider those people to be homeless, HUD does not. Which means anyone who sought temporary shelter the night of Jan. 29 was not included in the count.
“I know there [are] people who are spending 75 to 80 percent of their time outside, but there are times that they have opportunities to spend time inside with family or a friend,” said Erin Forbush, who directs shelter and housing at ServiceNet.
The annual point-in-time count is a national initiative set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to gauge how many people are experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. In the Berkshires, ServiceNet, Louison House and Construct administer the count with the aid of local partners.
The final figure becomes a reference point for analyzing trends in homelessness over time and securing funding.
On the day of last year’s count, 397 people were experiencing homelessness, up from 302 the year before. The finalized count for this year won’t be released until later in the spring.
Shelter workers trace the upward trend in the numbers year over year to the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations and to the Berkshires’ rising housing costs and lack of sufficient subsidized housing.
Forbush and Kathy Keeser, the executive director of Louison House, said those factors are still driving homelessness in the Berkshires.
“From the work that we do throughout the year, we know that number hasn’t gone down,” Forbush said.
ServiceNet’s shelters in Pittsfield and Louison House in North Adams are typically at capacity. Both have opened warming centers to serve people who need a warm place to spend the night this winter, but don’t have a permanent bed in either shelter.
Kate Coulehan, who administers the count in South County, said Construct has received a number of phone calls from people seeking shelter already this year.
That reality likely won’t be reflected in this year’s point-in-time count, Forbush said.
With temperatures lower this winter, Forbush and her counterparts in Northern and Southern Berkshire County said they noticed fewer people on the streets the night of the count.
“When people have a network, they use that network on really cold nights,” Forbush said, pointing out that trading the streets for a friend’s couch or pullout bed isn’t a permanent solution.
Forbush and Keeser still consider those people unhoused, even if HUD does not. To be entered into the count, people must be spending the night in a place “unfit for human habitation” — a car, a tent, an abandoned building.
Providers have been pointing out this discrepancy for years.
“We’ve always wanted to do one in the summer,” said Keeser. “We’d have a much better count.”
