CITY AMPS UP FOR SEVENTH ANNUAL HOMELESS STREET COUNT

2,500 Volunteer Recruitment Vital to HOPE 2009

December 8, 2008 - Department of Homeless Services (DHS) Commissioner Robert V. Hess today announced that the seventh annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE 2009), a survey of individuals living on New York City streets, parks and subway systems, will be held on the night of Monday, January 26, 2009. This is the fifth consecutive year that HOPE is being conducted citywide.  New Yorkers are being called on to act as the more than 2,500 volunteers needed to canvass the city and count the number of individuals living unsheltered on the streets.

"Reconfigured street outreach services have allowed us to move more than 1,000 people off the streets in the last year alone, which is progress," said DHS Commissioner Hess. "But what is even more remarkable is that the HOPE count, today, enables us to track street homelessness and educates us on the issue.  Before Mayor Bloomberg, we had no true measure of New York’s street homeless population. Today, the HOPE count educates us in our efforts to reduce street homelessness.  We hope one night not to have a single New Yorker sleeping on the street."

Volunteers can sign up by visiting nyc.gov/dhs and clicking on the HOPE logo.  This year's HOPE website includes more details about the HOPE count and information on street homelessness. During registration, volunteers will be able to take an interactive, online orientation approximately 10 minutes in length. Registrants can come back to the website at any time to take the orientation as a refresher, or if they didn't have time to take it during registration.

Volunteers will meet at 10:30 p.m. on Monday, January 26, 2009 for training at sites located throughout the five boroughs. Following their orientation and training, teams will disperse to count homeless individuals in assigned geographic areas from midnight until 4 a.m. Last year volunteers walked a total of 8,291 miles and surveyed more than 1,000 subway cars.

The HOPE 2008 count found unsheltered homelessness had decreased 25 percent from 2005, the first year DHS conducted HOPE in all five boroughs, accounting for 1,100 fewer New Yorkers living on city streets, in parks or in the subway system. There were 12 percent fewer unsheltered homeless individuals than in 2007.

HOPE is a critical part of DHS' efforts to reduce chronic homelessness in the City. DHS uses the results to evaluate the effectiveness of current strategies to overcome street homelessness as well as developing appropriate housing resources for the most vulnerable New Yorkers currently living without shelter.

In September, 2007, DHS restructured the City's approach to street homelessness by developing an effective system of accountability by borough.  Funding was allocated in correlation to percentage of street population by borough, and outreach teams reorganized to a single provider overseeing each borough.  Direct relationships between providers and DHS, along with key interagency partnerships, have allowed for an efficient system reaching out to those most in need.

NYC Street to Home outreach teams operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week through all five boroughs. Because some unsheltered individuals do not view shelter as a solution, DHS has brought nearly 300 Safe Haven and 150-200 stabilizations beds online for outreach placement, with a goal of 500 Safe Haven beds by June 2009.

HOPE 2009 will employ the same methodology used in previous counts. The City's methodology for estimating the size of the street homeless population has been acknowledged as the national standard by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (HUD). Volunteer teams will canvass all areas identified to likely have street homeless individuals, as well as a random sample of those areas not identified as likely to have street homeless individuals. This allows DHS to account for unsheltered individuals who outreach teams might not be aware of, or who might not remain in one specific location.

In addition, for the fifth year, "decoys," or trained individuals posing as homeless individuals, will be planted as a quality assurance measure. This shadow count helps to gauge the accuracy of the total estimate and allows us to adjust our final count estimate accordingly.

"We often hear New Yorkers ask how they can help fight homelessness," said Commissioner Hess. "The HOPE count is a hands-on activity that volunteers can take part in to make a real impact."