Almost 300 people are living on the streets in Lubbock, but it’s a sharp decrease from last year’s numbers.
The South Plains Homeless Consortium surveyed the homeless public earlier January in their “Point-in-Time” initiative to find out how many spend their nights in the shelter.
“Every single one of us want to work our numbers to zero,” said Ashley Ammons, President of South Plains Homeless Consortium. “We want to have absolutely no one homeless on any night of the week.”
In the released numbers, there has been a marked decrease in almost every category including “Veterans,” a 55 percent decrease from last year.
“Out of the 12 veterans identified, I’m told seven of them have already been housed now,” Ammons said. “They were identified by Point-in-Time and the rest are still being worked with.”
However, the numbers may not be accurate of homelessness here in Lubbock. The survey takes a snapshot of one day out of the year to determine who is living on the streets, and different factors can affect this.
“That day I believe it was nearly 28 degrees outside,” Ammons said. “So if they found shelter the night before then they don’t count, even if we know they are homeless.”
Despite this, officials with Point-in-Time and VetStar say these numbers are crucial to their operations. Without them, these veterans would not have been identified along with many others.
“We are never done looking, we are never done searching,” said Corey Lucas, a veteran with VetStar. “When we do things like this we can address their needs directly and immediately start looking out for the community.”
