Does anyone want to bet on whether we do a PiT count this winter/spring?
Of course they will and the numbers of people homeless and living rough will be exactly what the UVIC count organizers want them to be. Large enough to get money but not too large that people think the problem cannot be resolved. They do this simply by deciding how many people are going to participate in the count and where they are going to count. Too many people show up to count and you just send them to count at BHP in the pitch dark. Too few people and you send more off to housing facilities where maybe they will double count a few extra people.
I have participated in the counts as I have said before. The number one thing that most people don't realize is that what PIT counts as 'homeless' is not what most people consider to be 'homeless'. Most of us think homeless means living on the street. Historically those have been 10% of less of what the PIT folks count and they call "living rough". The PIT folks count anyone without a permanent place of their own to live as being homeless. That means anyone living with a friends, living in a hotel or shelter (no matter how long), anyone in treatment or jail, etc.