- December 4, 2024
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Flagler County’s annual point-in-time count for 2020, the 24-hour period designated by the federal government for local agencies to count their nearby homeless populations, took place from noon Jan. 23 to noon Jan. 24.
The four teams met in the early afternoon at the Flagler County Community Services office at 1000 Belle Terre Blvd. in Palm Coast to coordinate their actions for the day. An entire table was taken up by the “blessing bags” made by the men’s club of St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church and the Flagler branch of the Boys and Girls Club. Each waterproof bag contained necessities such as cotton socks (better than polyester for sweat), chapstick, deodorant, washcloths, first aid kits, updated 211 cards listing places useful to homeless people — where you can get your laundry done, get a hot meal, etc.
By 3 p.m. these and supplies for providing flu and hepatitis A vaccinations had been loaded into the Flagler County Fire Rescue vehicle that community paramedic Caryn Prather would use to drive Team 3, of which she was the leader, around to its stops.
Her other team members were DeAnna OFlaherty, SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery processor for Flagler Cares; Lisa Cancel, Serving Singles, Veterans and Families navigator for Changing Homelessness, Inc; and Jacki Lausier, a volunteer.
“We’re sort of all over the place this time,” Prather said. The stops were divided in no particular order between the teams of four volunteers (even those with county jobs had to volunteer for PIT count duty), so much of the afternoon would be dedicated to traveling between encampments.
When a team encountered someone homeless, one of two surveys could be used: a face-to-face survey, if the person was willing to talk, or an observation survey if they were not, or if it was a person one spotted while driving through traffic. As most of the counters had pre-existing knowledge of and relationships with many homeless members of the community, stops could be made besides the eight included on the map.
The first stop by a field revealed a solitary tent blue tent behind the tall grass, along with chairs and a legless glass table. The team members said the inhabitant was a 42-year-old Iraq War veteran. Though he was not there, a man named Mark Gore riding by on his bicycle stopped to say he had been helping the man.
“I saw him, and my heart just went out to him,” Gore said. He had given him a razor, a mattress and some blankets, and gave Prather his number to pass along to the man.
The veteran still had his phone, and texted her later — he had found some friends to stay with.
“He says ‘It’s so weird to have a shower,’” Prather said.
The next stop, not far from the first, found a man living out of a truck with his girlfriend in a different field of tall grass. The woman did not come out to talk to the surveyors. OFlaherty filled out the man’s survey, learning his age (55), history (a ward of the state since he was 5) and current situation (arrived recently from New Hampshire, where he had worked three different jobs), among other questions, before Prather gave him a hep A shot and a Chik-fil-A gift card for talking to them.
“It’s tough living in the shadows,” Janet Nickels had said earlier that day. No one could disagree.
Another couple was on a street corner by a shopping center. The woman, before she received a flu shot, said she was left without a house or job after father’s suicide last October. She had lived with and worked for him. The volunteers said such stories are not uncommon.
“It’s strange,” Cancel said after they had driven in a circuit around that area. “Last time, we found a whole bunch of people here.”
But none of the team was necessarily surprised. They all had stories of people who have disappeared.
The next man they found, sitting outside a coffee shop, did not feel like talking. Two more men spotted through traffic, toting their belongings in carts. One had a dog.
“Middle-aged white men are thick on the ground,” OFlaherty said of the homeless demographics they had observed in the past.
The count wound down between 6 and 6:30 p.m. after several stops that revealed only abandoned camps. Looking for people in the dark is never an ideal approach. Some shelters and churches would serve as sites for free dinner that night and for free breakfast the following morning, where volunteers would ask homeless attendees if they had already been counted to help round out the PIT efforts.
“Doesn’t really surprise me,” Prather said of the small number counted by Team 3. A lot of people, she said, do not want to be seen.
Others had ideas for improving the process next year.
“I wish it was a longer period of time,” Lausier said.
“I wish there was more technology involved,” OFlaherty said. She suggested a blast text to homeless folks with phones.
She also had advice for others who want to help those in their life who may be struggling with housing, with money, with treatment.
“Just take one more step,” OFlaherty said, “whatever you think the next step is. Just care.”
