GROW SD Supports Statewide Homeless Count

For the fourth year, GROW South Dakota will help the South Dakota Housing Development Authority with the statewide homeless count, along with the other Community Action Agencies in the state. The Department of Housing and Urban Development requires states to complete the count in order to determine the level of the challenge of homelessness and to direct resources for addressing it. The count will be conducted on Jan. 28, 2020. GROW SD enlists volunteers from each of the 17 NESDCAP counties to help conduct the count. There are basically two aspects of the count: Sheltered and unsheltered.

•  Sheltered: Homeless shelters report their counts (domestic violence and non-domestic violence shelters are counted separately).
•  Unsheltered: GROW SD enlists the help of local law enforcement, social service agencies, churches, etc., to report on people who are  homeless that they encounter during the day of the count.

The 2019 results were:

• Statewide: 995 homeless people--777 in shelters (543 non-DV, 218 DV) and 234 unsheltered. Of those, 188 were children under age 18; 609 were Native American, 285 were white, and 75 were black; 66 were veterans.
• NESDCAP counties: 68 total--64 in shelters (37 non-DV, 27 DV) and 4 unsheltered.

For the count, the basic definition of homeless is someone who is in a shelter or is living in conditions not fit for human habitation, e.g., on the street, in their car, etc. Someone who doesn’t have a home but is staying at a friend’s house does not count as homeless.

People interested in assisting with the count in the NESDCAP counties can contact Patrick Gallagher, patrick@growsd.org. For more information on the Count, click here.