Good morning, good evening, and good afternoon!
2023 has come to an end, whether it was fast like a speed race or felt like watching paint dry,
hopefully it was year full of meaningful experiences.
With the end of 2023 came one of Changing Homelessness Inc.’s (CHI’s) traditions, the
Homelessness Memorial. This is an event that we hold, in collaboration with City Rescue
Mission, to honor and remember those who have passed while experiencing homelessness this
year.
We mourn and honor those who have passed, but we must also celebrate them for the people
they were, by the names they were given, not for the circumstances that they were in. They
were never a “homeless person” rather, they were always our friends and neighbors who
were experiencing homelessness.
Honoring someone goes further than holding a ceremony for them, it means making a change
with the memories they left behind. While we can and have helped many people, we can’t help
everyone, and this memorial is a reminder of that. We must make time to mourn and reflect but
we can’t sulk forever. Instead, we need to let their spirits fuel our fire and go through 2024
blazing, ready to extend that helping hand to our neighbors in need.
Let’s take that burning passion, born from the memorial, and put it towards the Point-In-
Time (PIT) count.
The PIT count, as described by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), is “a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single
night in January.” CHI has been actively participating in the PIT count since 1992, this was even
before the organization was the lead entity for any county. The annual count is a massive
endeavor that all Continuum of Care (CoC) organizations must conduct to create a snapshot of
homelessness in their areas.
More recently, we would normally cover all three counties in one day. However, after COVID and
lessons learned from the 2023 PIT count, we determined that we could have better coverage if
we shifted to a three-day, three-county count. This way we would be able to give each county
the proper focus needed and, most importantly, we could better identify people experiencing
homelessness within our three-county area.
While the PIT count takes a considerable amount of effort, time and labor, it is crucial that it is
done to the best of our abilities. To conduct the PIT accurately and efficiently, it takes more than
just the efforts of the 40 + CoC agencies. It takes planning, cooperation, and most importantly it
requires the helping hands of our community’s amazing volunteers. Their compassion and
camaraderie are what enable huge events like this to not just happen but to run smoothly and
efficiently.
Thank you to all volunteers, past, present and future, you all are amazing, and the Northeast
Florida CoC could not accomplish the annual PIT count without you!
Memories can inspire change and we’d love to see you in a few weeks as we check in with
our neighbors experiencing homelessness.
Please sign up today to take part in the 2024 PIT count. If you have any questions regarding
the forms or the training, please contact Kalilah Jamall.
Author: Givon Gibson, Technical Writer
