By: Kyra Henderson

On January 23, 2020, Texas Homeless Network began collecting submissions for the 2020 Housing Inventory Count (HIC) which aims to provide bed and unit inventory information for all of the housing projects in the Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care (TX BoS CoC) 1. In addition to bed and unit inventory, agencies also submit information regarding the populations they serve, what funding they receive, and how many individuals were residing there on the night of the annual Point-in-Time Count (PIT). This information is used in conjunction with the PIT count results to demonstrate the population of individuals experiencing homelessness in a geographic area as well as that region’s capacity to respond to the housing crisis.

The HIC collects information from all housing component types, including the following: Emergency Shelter (ES), Transitional Housing (TH), Rapid Re-housing (RRH), Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), and Other Permanent Housing (OPH). In order to be included in the HIC, agencies must meet the following criteria: 

1. The primary intent of the project is to serve literally homeless persons,

2. The project verifies homeless status as part of its eligibility determination, and

3. The actual project clients are predominantly homeless (or, for permanent housing, were homeless at entry). 

Texas Homeless  Network’s Data Coordinator, Kyra Henderson, emphasizes the importance of the HIC by stating:

“In order to combat homelessness, every community needs to understand what their capacity is to respond to the housing crisis. The HIC is a community-wide effort that spans across all funding streams, target populations, and project types to provide a snapshot of what resources are available to those experiencing homelessness on a given night. This information is used to identify gaps in services, apply for grant funding, and advocate for changes in bed capacity to better respond to the community needs. ”

1 The TX BoS CoC is made up of all service providers, advocates, local government officials, and citizens who work to eliminate homelessness in 215 of Texas’ 254 counties.

Highlights of the Count:

There were 143 organizations identified which submitted a total of 202 project submissions. Housing Inventory Counts were submitted from agencies that span across 65 communities.

All participating communities submitted their Housing Inventory Count through a web portal, which was developed by Texas Homeless Network’s Database Coordinator,  Antonio Kufoy. This new submission process allowed for more accuracy and efficiency when completing the HIC this year.

Of the 202 HIC submissions:

• • 94 came from Emergency Shelters
    
  • 48 came from Rapid Re-housing projects
  • 34 came from Transitional Housing projects
  • 26 came from Permanent Supportive Housing projects

Characteristics:

• • 93 Organizations are in HMIS
  • 79 Organizations receive some form of federal funding
  • 62 Organizations are Victim Service Providers
  • 30 Organizations serve Veterans
  • There was an overall bed increase by 283 beds
    
    

Click here for the full visual representation of this data.

For the data set, please visit thn.org where you can download the full HIC Report.

About Texas Homeless Network: Texas Homeless Network (THN) is a non-profit membership-based organization whose mission is to lead Texas communities to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. Learn more at thn.org.