A Point in Time: Pathways & partners conduct annual winter homeless count

Jan. 24—Twenty people stood in the misty morning Wednesday outside St. Benedict's soup kitchen, waiting for its doors to open. Once inside, they were treated to sandwiches, bowls of chili, fruit and brownies.

Also Wednesday, they became part of the Point in Time count, a state-mandated day for tallying the number of homeless in Indiana for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Throughout Indiana, homeless advocates and volunteers strove to reach an approximate number of homeless Hoosiers.

"As many community agencies are getting involved as much as they can to get a scope of how many people are experiencing homelessness in the community," said Jarom Hawker, the Terre Haute Police Department's social worker.

"It's always going to be a mission to find them, but working together, they'll be able to piece together where they are."

Pathways, Reach Services' day center that assists low-income and homeless people, has become a hub for the homeless to visit, so it's leading Terre Haute's Point in Time count.

There, Kelli Fuller, the co-chair for the Homeless Council for the Wabash Valley, and Danielle Elkins, Point in Time area coordinator, were preparing for the homeless to drop by, stock up on necessities and be added to the count.

Fuller also works in homeless outreach and community engagement for Hamilton Center; her co-chair Lea Durbin is facilitating the counts elsewhere in the six-county Wabash Valley region. Elkins is also director of the Bethany House.

"Usually, they'll start filtering in in the afternoons," Fuller said. "We actually had people that were already counted this morning. We've got people doing outreach at the transit stations, just driving around, and all the soup kitchens will be counting as well."

Elkins said that the arrival of Pathways means that volunteers don't have to venture out as much to seek out the homeless because the homeless are now coming to them.

"It's going to work better with having Pathways available to us," she said. "Before, we didn't have this."

Homeless have become well-acquainted with Pathways, particularly during the recent cold spell when temperatures barely broke into the double digits.

"We just had the emergency warming center, where we were averaging about 57-65 people," Fuller said. "We saw newer people that were in need. The rents have gotten really high; people can't afford rents anymore, so we're seeing a new population coming in."

Those visiting Pathways on Wednesday were able to get haircuts and avail themselves to all manner of supplies — food packets, hygiene items, handwarmers, hats, socks, gloves, blankets, sleeping bags, tents, ponchos and even pet food supplies.

"We saw quite a bit of people who don't get put in emergency shelters because of their pets," Fuller said.

Grace Clinic and Union Hospital also offered clinic services on Wednesday, with Union providing in-house immunizations.

Though January's Point in Time count is mandated by the state, a few years back Brendan Kearns, then co-chair of the Homeless Council for the Wabash Valley, implemented a voluntary summer count that by all accounts is more efficient.

"It gives us a better count of what we're really dealing with here in Vigo County," Elkins said of the summer count. "It helps us know what we can do better and those numbers are more transparent — the people are more visible out in the nicer weather."

So why does the government mandate a winter count? "Not my rules," Elkins said.

Back at St. Benedict's soup kitchen, the nicer weather is making the count easier, said Sara Greer, who has been the cook at St. Benedict's soup kitchen since August.

"The numbers are up because it's not so cold," she said, pointing out a calendar which lists the daily number of people seeking free warm meals.

Last week, when the temperatures dove into single digits, those hoping for food dropped into the 50s; on Tuesday, when the weather soared into the 40s, 111 people stopped by.

"We've got a lot of really good resources but it's hard" to distribute them, Greer said, because mental illness and substance issues can be prevalent in the homeless population. "It's very eye-opening."

David Kronke can be reached at 812-231-4232 or at david.kronke@tribstar.com.