Category Archives: Community Interest

Homeless Count – 2016 PIT Survey

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2016 PIT Count

CVHPC Logo 2015It’s that time of year again when the Concho Valley Homeless Coalition and its many volunteers participate in the THN’s annual statewide count of people experiencing homelessness.  Our PIT count this year is happening on Thursday, January 21.

In past years we have sent volunteers out on the streets, alleys, under bridges, parking lots, etc. to find the homeless living on the streets. This has never worked out very well.  Last year we sent our 20 volunteers in very cold and wet weather for two or more hours.  When they all returned very wet, cold, and hungry, we had a total count of one (1) homeless person.

This year we are trying something different after conferring with several homeless related agencies, especially Debbie Berryman at the Salvation Army. We are staging a mini-event at The Ministerial Alliance; sending several teams of volunteers to the Stephens Central Library; and sending a team to the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen during their lunch time. The Salvation Army will be hosting two special evening meals and are being supported by several service men and women from Goodfellow Air Force Base.  We are also asking every transitional living facility in San Angelo to conduct their own count of their residents.

Purpose of Homeless Count

Homeless Woman in San AngeloThe purpose of the Point-in-Time count is to identify the number of people experiencing homelessness and those on the verge of homelessness. These numbers are then used by each community to determine needs as well as gaps in services. Numbers are also used in securing funding for more supportive services within the community.  Ultimately, the Texas Homeless Network reports these number back the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.

Volunteers Survey Takers

Volunteering to help us count those experiencing homelessness and at-risk of becoming homeless can often be an emotionally overwhelming experience so please know how much your time is appreciated.

The homeless coalition each year establishes counting places all over the city.  We rely on our great community of San Angelo to fill the volunteer positions on this one day a year event. All volunteers must attend a half-hour training.

We need volunteers to work a 3 hour shift at the Stephens Central Library – we need 2 teams of 3

  • morning starting at 9:00am
  • afternoon starting at 12:00pm

The Ministerial Alliance – This is a mini-event with haircuts and health screenings and more from 1:00pm to 6:00pm with a hot meal being served to the homeless at 6:00pm.  We need a total of 12 volunteers for the following shifts

  • 1:00pm to 3:30pm – 3 volunteers needed
  • 3:30pm to 6:00pm – 3 volunteers needed
  • 6:00pm to 8:00pm – 6 volunteers needed

Training

The headquarters for all PIT count activity is The Ministerial Alliance, 1110 Martin Luther King Drive. Volunteer Survey Taker half-hour training will be held at The Ministerial Alliance on

  • Tuesday, January 19 from 12:15 to 12:45pm
  • Wednesday, January 20 from 12:15 to 12:45pm
  • Thursday, January 21 from 10:00am to 10:30am

To Volunteer

To volunteer, send Rev. Scott Heiser an email at scott.heiser@cvhpc.org and let him know where and what time you would like to volunteer and what day you will be attending the training.

PIT Count Survey Form

Here is the PIT Count Survey Form – Please print as many copies as you need. 2016PITSurvey

November 2015 Coalition General Meeting

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November 2015 Coalition Meeting Date

As you are aware, our regularly scheduled meeting for November 11th is falling on a federal holiday this year.  Out of respect for the many veterans who will be attending Veteran’s Day events, we are postponing the November coalition general meeting for one week.

Meeting Date: November 18th, 2015 from 9:00am to 10:30pm

November 2015 Coalition Meeting Location

Also, we have elected to move the meetings to a different location each month,  all of them in neighborhoods that have homeless populations. We are doing this so that we can expose you, our members, to the neighboorhoods where many of your clients live.

Our November meeting will be held at:  St. Joseph Catholic Church, 301 West 17th Street – San Angelo

Future meeting locations will include Wesley-Trinity UMC (home of the “Daily Bread Soup Kitchen” ), Nazareth Presbyterian (host of Project Dignidad), Betel UMC (home church of Methodist Health Ministries) and a church in the Rio Vista (El Barrio) neighborhood.  We would like to also meet in the heart of the Blackshear neighborhood on 19th and Shelton at Galilee Baptist.

Goodfellow Volunteer Fair A Success

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Hundreds of active duty military and civilians came for the Goodfellow Volunteer Fair today.  Your Homeless Planning Coalition was there.  Sharon Troy and Scott Heiser set up a table and talked to many people about the current and future volunteer opportunities available to them with our member organizations. This is just one of the benefits we offer to members of the Concho Valley Homeless Planning Coalition.

CVHPC at Volunteer FairWe actively recruited volunteers for Christians In Action, Somebody’s Rusty and Christian Women’s Job Corp. We got 12 volunteers in all.  Yeah!  The organizations who got volunteer sign ups have already been emailed the contact information for their volunteers.

Dear readers, do you notice something missing in the picture?  That’s right! We do not have a banner to use for events such as these.  If you would like to give towards a great looking banner or two for the CV Homeless Planning Coalition, please contact either Floyd Crider or Scott Heiser.

August 2015 Meeting Summary

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CVHPC Meeting Summary

Homeless Management Information System(HMIS)

One of the key elements to solving homelessness in the Concho Valley is being able to analyze problem areas and develop solutions that benefit the whole community.  Data collection is an important part of that process.  Currently there is only one agency in San Angelo using the HMIS system (The Salvation Army).  Every agency who offers any type of service to the homeless is encouraged to acquire HMIS which is available only through the Texas Homeless Network (THN). Unfortunately, the cost for HMIS has been prohibitive for most social service agencies in San Angelo.

The Coalition is working with THN to help solve the cost issue.  If we had everyone using HMIS, we would have an effective tool to report and analyze the collected information that would help us identify and solve problems in a collaborative fashion throughout the Concho Valley.

Independent Homeless Count Planned for October 2015

As a city, we must get a better handle on the number of people in San Angelo who are considered homeless by HUD’s definition.  In October 2015, the Coalition will move forward with an independent count that will include locations and people that may not be counted in the annual Texas Point-In-Time Count which is conducted every January.  Included in the October 2015 count will be people who are incarcerated, actively involved in treatment programs for mental health or substance abuse issues and school districts with children/families who are considered at-risk.  The October count will be help in conjunction with the coalition’s “Homeless Awareness Day” for the residents of San Angelo.  No specific date has been set.

July Coalition Meeting Review

Posted on by Posted in Community Interest, Events, Homelessness, Poverty .

The need for increased interaction and collaboration among the members the Concho Valley Homeless Planning Coalition was well received at yesterday’s coalition meeting.  Major Tim Grider, Commander of The Salvation Army of San Angelo and Ron Landers, CEO of Christians In Action gave brief but informative presentations.

Major Grider explained that most of the negative chatter spread throughout the homeless community stems from the Emergency Shelter having to keep up very strict rules for the safety and comfort of ALL the overnight guests. As a coalition member agency, I urge you to STOP those rumors and start sending people who need emergency shelter to The Salvation Army.  Please stop throwing away your money on overnight hotel stays because someone has heard bad stories about the shelter.  A person (or family) can spend up to seven nights at the shelter free of charge, usually enough time to work through the overwhelming situations that led them to seek emergency shelter in the first place.

Ron Landers has also been dealing with the negative chatter that was being spread throughout the social services community.  But, his message yesterday shed a whole new light on Christians In Action’s (CIA) mission and the changes taking place since being named CEO.  Coming to CIA from 17 years in the missionary field overseas, Ron has a very different perspective on  how the ministry of CIA can be carried out.  His ideas and experience are embraced and endorsed by his Board of Directors and we will be seeing many more positive changes in the near future.

To help meet the ongoing financial needs at CIA, Ron is stepping out and demonstrating his personal commitment to CIA.  On August 27th, Ron will be participating in a 100-mile bicycle event in the hellish heat of Wichita Falls and he is asking us to sponsor his ride.  You can pledge $1.00 a mile and all the money goes directly to CIA’s general operating fund.  Contact Ron Landers at CIA for more information.

After the presentations, Rev. Floyd Crider talked about a few issues the coalition has chosen to tackle:

If we are to attract more money into San Angelo to fight or homelessness problem, we must have an exact count.  We know that there are about 92 homeless people living on the streets of in transitional shelters.  But this number does not include several hundred people who are temporarily living with friends and family because we lack sufficient affordable housing in San Angelo.  Rev. Scott Heiser spoke about a project he is working on along with several others that will help in this area but it will be several years before we can expect to see any results.  In the mean time and so that the city of San Angelo can apply for more funding to support the housing agencies already in place, we feel we need to conduct our own all-inclusive count of the homeless in our city.  The idea of an independent count was decidedly adopted by the coalition members at the meeting and, as a result, we are forming a Count Committee from within the coalition membership to tackle the planning and execution of the independent count.

Rev. Crider also brought the issue of increased collaboration among coalition members when applying to grants related to homelessness.  The recent ESG grant application submitted by Concho Valley Community Action Agency was only supported by The Salvation Army.  This may have critically weakened our changes of securing addition emergency services grant money we need in San Angelo.  Had there been more collaborative participation from coalition member agencies, we could have strengthened our place in the competition for this funding.  Everyone at the coalition meeting agreed we must increase our collaborative efforts and support of each other when applying for grant monies.  As a result, we will be forming a Finance Committee for educating coalition members about how to collaborate on grants, when grant applications are being accepted and assisting organizations garner the support and collaboration from coalition members for grant applications.

We need you or a member of your staff to volunteer one or two hours a month to work on a committee for the betterment of all coalition members and the community: Count Committee and Finance Committee.  If every coalition member organization supported these committees, just imaging the impact we could have on our community – collectively and individually.

We have begun the process of writing the guidelines, goals and qualifications for each committee with availability expected by the end of July.  If you would like to participate on either committee, please send an email to Rev. Crider ( president@cvhpc.org).