Durham Region Homelessness Partnering Strategy Community Advisory Board

And

United Way of Durham Region, Homelessness Partnering Strategy 2014-19 Community Entity

Point in Time Count Call for Proposal 2016-17

Proposed Activities, Roles and Responsibilities

Please take time to review the CFP document for additional important information.

Date of the PIT Count

The exact date has not been set. We anticipate it will happen sometime in February 2017.

Funding Amount

$60,000.00

Why do a PIT Count

A term and condition in the HPS contract is that a PIT Count must be conducted sometime between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2019.

The Purpose of a PIT Count

A PIT Count of homelessness has two primary purposes:

1. A count of people experiencing absolute homelessness: It is intended to identify how many people in a community experience homelessness in shelters and on the streets at a given time. Conducted over several years, PIT Counts can be used by the community to track progress in reducing homelessness.

2. A survey of the homeless population: Through an accompanying survey, the Count gives the community information on the demographics and service needs of their homeless population. This information can be used to target community resources to where they are most needed.

A PIT Count is not intended to:

1. Be a measure of everyone who experiences homelessness in a community over time. By focusing on a single day, the count will not include some people who cycle in and out of homelessness. What it will do, is provide an estimate of how many of these people are homeless at a given time.

2. Be a count of hidden homelessness (e.g., people who are “couch-surfing”). The focus of the count is instead on those who are absolutely homeless (e.g., sleeping in shelters or on the street) on the day of the count. Some communities nevertheless conduct the survey with the hidden homeless population in order to provide some information on their service needs.

The Durham Region Homelessness Partnering Strategy Community Advisory Board (henceforth known as the CAB) will oversee the work of the approved agency. This will include members of the CAB overseeing the agency’s Project Management Plan. It should be understood that the agency will have four liaisons who will ask for updates on the projects progression on a regular basis in:

  • Volunteer Recruitment, Training, and Deployment
  • Logistical Planning
  • Community Engagement Consultation and Mobilization
  • DATA Collection, Inputting and Analysis

The CAB will be solely responsible for providing the agency with:

  • The Communication Plan
  • Developing the surveys for sheltered homeless individuals and families and the unsheltered homeless.The survey must be administered exactly as provided and no additional questions may be added. Contact between surveyors and surveyeeswill be restricted to subjects covered in training.
  • The Safety Plan
  • Initial contact with each of the eight (8) municipalities and the Regional governments to explain the PIT Count process and solicit community support

The Agency will be responsible for the implementation of the work plan with the oversight of the CAB.

We are attaching a sample work plan and time line in matrix format to assist you in your proposal. These are samples so feel free to add or remove activities as you see necessary.

One of the important first steps is the setting up of an internal planning group that will assist the agency in the logistical planning that is necessary for mapping the regional locations where the count should be conducted. The internal planning group will also facilitate collaboration with community partners.

DATA and DATA Sharing

The approved agency will input the results of the surveys into the HIFIS softwareusing a specialized module provided by Canada. If the agency uses HIFIS they will be required to use a standalone instance of HIFIS for the PIT count data collection. The agency is responsible for the technical implementation of HIFIS and the module with some support from both the CAB and Canada. The final report (once approved) will be distributed widely. The final report and revision process may extend past the end date of the project; there will be no additional funding but the agency is expected to make all reversions requested as part of the total project funding.

United Way of Durham Region and the CAB believe that information and data is vitally important to inform decision-making. Because the data may reveal personally identifying information it remains the property of the CAB and the United Way of Durham Region. Once the project is complete the agency must return all paper and electronic copies of the data for secure storage. Appropriate privacy controls must be in place at the agency to protect the information during the project and to ensure complete destruction of any copies or backups after the data is returned. We are also aware that data can be taken out of context and/or be used in a manner that misrepresents the reality the data was intended to portray. United Way of Durham will have sole discretion to approve specific requests.Should the agency wish to use the data for any purpose other than completing the final report they will be required to enter a data sharing agreement for that specific purpose and license the data.

Proposals will include:

  • Applicant’s Background and Expertise demonstrating how the agency has the resources to complete the project and comply to the reporting expectations
  • Detailed data security and processing plan
  • Detailed project budget
  • Work plan and time line in matrix format
  • List of agencies/organizations etc. you will approach to participate on the internal planning committee
  • Will you use incentives and why or why not
  • Strategies to address the differences between urban and rural areas of Durham
  • Please describe how your client identification strategies will ensure anonymity for clients and avoid duplicate counts of individuals
  • Volunteer recruitment, training, and supervisingplan and low turnout contingency plan.
  • Cash flow projection for project (please be as realistic as possible)
  • Latest agency audited financial statement
  • Current budget showing projected and actuals to date

Budget Information

Through our network, we have secured support from another entity that has recently conducted a PIT Count in a region similar to ours. The support includes lending of day of equipment i.e. clip boards, safety vests, nap sacks for volunteers to hold their survey tools etc. We will also be using “Count me In” as the slogan for the PIT Count and suggest (if the budget allows) the procurement of tuques or other apparel that volunteers will be given to identify them as part of the initiative. We were also made aware of the need to procure pens that will continue to work in the cold.

Since we do not know at this time what costs will be offset, most budget lines remain flexible. Funds can be moved from one line to another. The only fixed amount is administration fee and that can-not exceed 15%.

Please do not hesitate to contact Barb Fannin at or 905-436-7377 ext. 105 if you have any concerns or questions.