Volunteers work to find homeless during Point in Time Count
One by one, as John Chruskoskie waited in line for a free meal under a cacophonous Interstate 90 overpass, he answered the questions asked of him by a woman wearing a yellow vest.
Chruskoskie slept outside last Thursday night, he told the volunteer. The first warming center he visited was full, and by the time he made it to the second, there was already too long of a line, he said. He later said he would be camping outside Wednesday evening, but wouldn’t say where – worried that disclosing the location would endanger the people he was camping with, he said.
Chruskoskie was one of more than 300 homeless people who received a hot meal from Blessings Under the Bridge, a Spokane Valley-based nonprofit founded in 2007 that serves meals every Wednesday night at the corner of Fourth Avenue and McClellan Street.
But this week is different.
Volunteers with the city’s Point in Time Count, the annual one-week survey of the area’s homeless population, scoured the crowd for those who had not already been documented in the recent days’ efforts.
The Point in Time Count is a requirement of every city that receives federal funding for its homelessness programs, but the methodology can vary from city to city. Although city officials acknowledge the count is a long way from exact, Spokane has buttressed its efforts in recent years to encompass – and count – as many homeless individuals as possible.
The endeavor not only provides an overall population count of the homeless but helps provide a level of context to their situation. Survey questions probe for information about a person’s history with substance abuse, disabilities, veteran status and even past experiences with homelessness.
Volunteers at Blessings found people to be upfront about their homelessness.
People are willing to share, volunteer Susan Hales said, because “most people don’t take the time to talk to people who are homeless.”
Hales began helping by handing out cookies to homeless people she encountered. She eventually began volunteering with Jewels Helping Hands.
“I wanted to do more and learn more,” she said, so last year she signed up with the city to help conduct the Point in Time Count.
The survey process often brings up a homeless person’s traumatic experiences or lack of access to services, said Emily Thorn, a second-year medical student at Washington State University.
“It is tough to hear those and not have something you can offer people at that time,” Thorn said.
For many, their current experience being homeless is not their first, and some have “been homeless basically their whole adult life,” Thorn said.
Chruskoskie, for example, is four months into his current period of homelessness, but he’s been in and out of it for years.
On Wednesday, volunteers were specifically searching for people staying outside because those staying in shelters have already been counted. Chruskoskie said Spokane makes a better effort to provide services than other cities, including Portland, where he has also been homeless.
“The city really does give back,” Chruskoskie said.
On Wednesday night, that giving back happened across an array of picnic tables assembled beneath the overpass, as songs like Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” blared out through large speakers. In many ways, it was hardly distinguishable from a neighborhood block party.
“We’re not happy to have a lot of people here, but we’re blessed to know that we have a place that we can help them,” said the nonprofit’s founder, Jessica Kovac.
Though Blessings Under the Bridge welcomed the Point in Time Count volunteers, Kovac lamented that the survey likely underestimates the number of homeless.
“There’s so many people who live in their car, they’re sleeping in back alleys, that are so afraid of being out that they’re not registered anywhere,” Kovac said.
Last year’s Point In Time Count tallied 1,309 people who are homeless in the Spokane area, 315 of whom were unsheltered. The data assembled from this week’s count will be released by the city later this year.