HAYS COUNTY (KXAN) — Hays County leaders learned more about the number of people experiencing homelessness in their community at a recent Hays County Commissioner’s Court meeting.
The county’s homeless coalition presented the results of its ‘point in time’ count from January 2024 on Monday.
According to new data, there are more unhoused people now, compared to 2020. Most are living in shelters compared to just on the streets or maybe even cars. However, data shows majority of those individuals are younger than 18 years old.
“I’m concerned about the high number of children under 18 that are in our shelters right now,” one Hays County Commissioner said. “That’s awful high.”
The latest Hays County data also shows most unsheltered people are between the ages of 35 and 54, and that most are dealing with serious mental illness or are considered chronically homeless.
“Because we have five years of data, it shows you some trends,” a Hays County Homeless Coalition member said. “It also gives you insight into how effective we are doing our work of finding people…also how effective are our county housing programs and how they’re working as the numbers trend one direction or another.”
According to the Hays County Homeless Coalition, the federally mandated point-in-time count only shows how many people were experiencing homelessness on that specific day when volunteers went out and counted. That means it’s not an entire representation of the county’s entire homeless population.
According to a Hays Homeless Coalition member, they didn’t have numbers from school districts to present to commissioners on Monday. Those numbers will give a better idea of students who are unhoused.
The Hays Homeless Coalition said staff is still working with districts to compile that information.