The Family & Children’s Services Homeless Outreach team joined volunteers and A Way Home for Tulsa (AWH4T) outreach professionals across Tulsa County for the Point-in-Time (PIT) count event last weekend. The PIT count is an unduplicated count on a single night in January of the people in a community who are experiencing homelessness that includes both sheltered and unsheltered populations.
The teams conducted brief surveys, which are used to evaluate the needs of Tulsa’s homeless population. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that Continuums of Care, a regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals, conduct an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelters, transitional housing, and Safe Havens on a single night. Continuums of Care also must conduct a count of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness every other year. Each count is planned, coordinated, and carried out locally.
The 2022 PIT Count found 1,063 individuals, including children, experiencing homelessness in Tulsa. Of those, 8% were veterans, 38% were unsheltered, 55% reported a personal history of incarceration and justice involvement; 67% reported having a disabling condition, and 86% reported first experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma.
