Bending the Arc

Overnight, July 23 into the early hours of July 24, several carloads of volunteers drove around in their dedicated zones for a Point in Time (PIT) count. These volunteers included four members from the CSA community, one sister and three associates.

A PIT is intended to capture a minimum amount of information on the homeless population in order to create a “snapshot” of what homelessness looks like in a neighborhood, city, or state. The data collected through the Point-in-Time process is reported in the Annual “Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) that is provided to the U.S. Congress. Homeless information is also reported to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, and is utilized to develop the Housing Inventory Chart for the Balance of State Continuum of Care. PIT counts are performed twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter.

When speaking to individuals encountered, volunteers explain that we are not police, but out to collect information to provide better services for the unhoused in our community. We ask their permission to be interviewed and submit their responses through an electronic form. For those that agree, their responses are officially counted in the PIT. For those who do not agree, they are marked on a separate form as “observed” encounter and not counted in the official PIT count.

Volunteers are provided training for how to approach individuals they encounter. They are also asked to consider which team role they want to be assigned to the night of the PIT. These include: 

• Who is most comfortable engaging with clients?
• Who is going to be in charge of the paperwork?
• Who is in charge of holding flashlights, clipboards, etc
• Who is in charge of making sure each stop on the route is covered?
• Who will be in charge of handing out food and/or gift cards and resource information?

A 14-minute film all volunteers are encouraged to watch is Man in the Dog Park. We recommend every person watch this as well!  https://www.themaninthedogparkfilm.org/ 
Winnebagoland Housing Coalition comprises three Wisconsin counties - Fond du Lac, Winnebago, and Green Lake. They share a database that collects information of individuals or families (households) that are soon-to-be, temporarily, or chronically unhoused and list what services they need or are receiving. As of 7/7/25, there were a total of 147 households reported being in Fond du Lac County. Clients decide who is considered to be in their household, but the database does break households down to those with and without minor children. Here is the breakdown of the latest Fond du Lac County numbers:

• 49 households are on the prevention list (at risk of homelessness or impending homelessness). These are households that are couch hopping/surfing, paying for a motel, or have to leave where they are staying within the next 14 days. Of the 49 households on the prevention list, 28 are households without children and 21 are with children.
• 98 households are on the homeless list that consists of category 1 (literally homeless- in car/outside/shelter/camping, motel paid for by agency, safe haven etc) and category 4 (fleeing domestic violence/sexual assault, trafficking). Of the 98 households on this list, 64 are households without children and 34 are households with children.
   

The overall number for the Winnebagoland Homeless Coalition as of 7/7/2025 is as follows: 

There are 722 households on the Winnebagoland (Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Southern Winnebago Counties) homeless list. 

• 172 of these households are on the prevention list (at risk of homelessness or impending homelessness).
• For the 550 on the homeless list (in categories 1 and 4), 369 households are without children and 181 households are with children.