HopeCount

Jan. 23, 2024:  Community Access Participates in the 2024 NYC HOPE Count

On Tuesday, January 23rd, Community Access convened a group of 22 volunteers to participate in this year’s HOPE Count – staff members, tenants, program participants, employees from Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, and Martha Dabagian from our board.

The HOPE Count is required by the federal government and is meant to help the city understand the number of individuals who are experiencing “street homelessness” – that is, those who are unwilling to enter the city’s shelter system.  The results of the count are then used to determine resource needs in terms of services geared towards this group.  

The HOPE count has been conducted in NYC annually since 2005 using the same sampling methodology:

  • All areas of the city where individuals experiencing homelessness are known to stay (i.e., “high density” areas) based on past surveys and outreach worker observations
  • All individuals experiencing homelessness in these areas are counted; and
  • Random sample of all other areas, termed “low density”—results from these areas used to estimate the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in areas not surveyed.

Volunteers are organized into teams of 4-5 people and assigned areas of the city to survey.  Areas include “surface areas”, as wells as subways. As part of the count, each person surveyed who indicated that they were street homeless was asked if they would like to access shelter for the night.  

NYC shelters – many of which house hundreds of people in dormitory-like settings can be unwelcoming places, to say the least.  There is little opportunity for privacy or control over one’s environment and much opportunity for interpersonal conflict.  

The HOPE Count is a moment in time where the city highlights the circumstances of people who are unsheltered and trying to survive on the streets and subway platforms in our city, and it is an opportunity to engage the wider public as volunteers and put a human face – or many human faces – onto the issue of  “the homeless”.  

Everyone deserves a home, and the annual HOPE Count is a reminder of why our mission matters – and how critical it is for us to achieve our strategic goal to accelerate real estate development and move towards a future where everyone is housed and has access to services and supports.