LOCALIZE IT: Surveys show city-by-city tally of homelessness
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Homelessness has been on the rise for several years across the U.S., driven by increases in numbers on the West Coast. Experts expect that the overall trend continued through the coronavirus pandemic.
The federal government usually releases nationwide results of the local Point in Time counts between November and January. The counts attempt to tally how many people are experiencing homelessness at a given time. But The Associated Press has compiled the top-line results from local reports as they have been released over the past several months.
The preliminary numbers suggest homelessness is increasing overall, but with significant rises some places and declines in others. Find AP's story here.
Some tips for localizing the story:
RESOURCES
— Associated Press journalists have tracked local Point in Time counts. This downloadable CSV spreadsheet contains the total, sheltered and unsheltered homeless count for each continuum of care for which the AP gathered full data for both 2020 and 2022.
— AP/Report for America data journalist Kavish Harjai has analyzed the results in this file that includes a deeper explanation about the data and its limitations and lists of areas where homeless counts have risen and fallen.
— Every community in the U.S. is part of a continuum of care that provides homelessness services as conducts the Point in Time count. They are a good place to find survey results for communities not on the AP analysis or more detail for those that are. The groups, which are government agencies in may places, also have experts on local homelessness.
— Especially in larger cities, there are nongovernmental groups that advocate for and provide services to people experiencing homelessness.
QUESTIONS/REPORTING TIPS
— Have the homelessness numbers changed in your area? If so, what economic forces and/or government actions are believed to be driving the change? Are there methodology changes that could impact the local data?
— Do the experiences of people experiencing homelessness jibe with the explanations of local officials and experts?
— How are local policies changing?
— Is there political fallout from consideration of how to handle homelessness?
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Localize It is an occasional feature produced by The Associated Press for its customers’ use. Questions can be directed to Katie Oyan at koyan@ap.org.