Project Preamble 

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Between October 15 and 23, 2014, the 7 Cities on Housing & Homelessness (7 Cities) in collaboration with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness conducted Alberta’s first ever provincial Point-in-Time Homeless Count (PiT). The count was part of an initiative to develop a harmonized approach to homeless counts nationally. A PiT Count of homelessness has two primary purposes:

 

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

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• 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. 

 

Alberta was the first jurisdiction to implement measures towards a more standardized methodology, leading the way in Canada and the 7 Cities are now developing and implementing strategies to deal with specific populations and needs as highlighted by this data. 

 

The 7 Cities is committed to improving our coordinated response to homelessness. A province-wide working group has been supporting the development of common language and standardized tools that each community will utilize to collect local Point in Time data, which can be further streamlined upwards to inform provincial systems. To further this work, 7 Cities on Housing and Homelessness seeks a Consultant to:

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a) Modify the existing data entry tool to include revised survey questions;

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b) Undertake cleaning, consolidation and analysis of the 2016 PiT data from the 7 Cities;

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c) Prepare preliminary reports for each of the 7 Cities using basic community level PiT and demographic/economic indicators;

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d) Prepare a final report for public release summarizing findings of the Homeless Count across the 7 Cities; and

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e) Collaborate with the 7 Cities Working Group to complete these tasks.