Nick Carey is one of the roughly 280 volunteers who participated in this year’s Point-in-Time Count in Pinellas County.
He said it is an opportunity for him to hear the stories of those living without homes.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to just have a conversation,” Carey said.
On Thursday, the Homeless Leadership Alliance of Pinellas hosted its survey of people living on the streets on a particular night. The survey asks for their stories, including how they ended up without a home and what the alliance can do to help them.
The data is then sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The survey is essential to getting funding for programs, said Victoria Kelly, the alliance’s senior manager of organizational advancement and strategy.
"The Pinellas Point-in-Time Count is an opportunity for members of the community to meet and survey their neighbors experiencing homelessness,” Kelly said.
The survey makes the county eligible for $7 million in HUD funding for programs, including Permanent Supportive Housing.
“We’re impacting system planning and policymaking and funding decisions at absolutely every level,” Kelly said.
She said data over the past few years have shown a small increase in the homeless population in Pinellas.
Carey said several of the people surveyed this year cited 2024’s hurricanes or the COVID-19 pandemic as factors for their situation.
Kelly said the alliance had slightly fewer volunteers this year, something she also attributes to the hurricanes.
“But I was really impressed by the way our community has stepped up this year to once again come on out and survey their neighbors,” she said.
Teams of two to six people were dispersed throughout the city to canvass several blocks. Volunteers would approach someone and ask where they slept the night before. If they were homeless, whether sheltered or unsheltered, the team would ask them demographic information and questions about their situation.
With Florida’s anti-camping law taking effect since last year’s count, Kelly said, the nonprofit wants to help make resources available. Volunteers passed out resource cards, including information on the law, which prohibits sleeping or camping in public places.
It wasn’t the biggest goal of the day, Carey said, but making sure people know their rights and where they are legally allowed to stay was important.
“And how they can access resources to hopefully keep them out of the criminal justice system because adding a criminal record on top of being unhoused doesn’t help anyone,” he added.
Alliance interim CEO Aaron Swift said the team was looking forward to using the data "to fight to end homelessness rather than criminalize it."
"We expected less participation because of the 'anti-camping' law, which is nothing less than a thinly veiled attempt to criminalize homelessness," Swift said in an email to WUSF. "And our volunteers indeed reported anecdotal evidence that they interacted with fewer unhoused neighbors in certain locations across the county."
The alliance created a special task force this past summer to address the anti-camping law, which took effect Oct. 1. Since then, the organization has worked with other nonprofits to increase shelter capacity.
Kelly said the survey will help identify other ways the alliance can assist people, especially those facing the anti-camping law.
The data collected by volunteers will be released to the public this summer.
