Port St. Lucie Workshop to Discuss Homelessness April 18
PORT ST. LUCIE – The most recent Point-in-Time Homeless Count found there were 846 individuals (668 adults and 178 children) who were counted as homeless on the Treasure Coast – a 4% increase from the 2021 survey. St. Lucie County’s One St. Lucie Community Homelessness Task Force will host a public engagement workshop on Monday, April 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Port St. Lucie Community Center, 2195 SE Airoso Blvd., to solicit public feedback to address homelessness in our community.
The 13-member One St. Lucie Community Homelessness Task Force was created by the Board of County Commissioners to develop strategies to prevent, reduce and end chronic individual homelessness in our area. The committee is hosting a series of public workshops to collect feedback from residents, especially those agencies that work directly with the homeless and underserved residents in our community. This feedback will help develop solutions to end homelessness throughout St. Lucie County. The task force is charged with creating and presenting a community action plan to the Board of County Commissioners no later than June 1.
The April 18 workshop is open to all residents and community partners that have specific ideas to help create solutions to prevent and end homelessness in St. Lucie County.
To be counted in the Point-in-Time (PIT) count, individuals must be literally homeless (sleeping on the street, in a car, in the woods, camps, etc.) or sheltered (emergency shelter, transitional shelter, hotel paid for by an agency). A total of 24 agencies surveyed unsheltered homeless individuals during the PIT count and a total of seven agencies that reported sheltered homeless individuals.
In addition to the 846 homeless throughout the Treasure Coast, there were 1,986 households reporting “couch surfers” – individuals temporarily staying with family or friends because of economic reasons, but not considered homeless in this count. This was up from 1,319 “couch surfers” during 2021, which is a 51% increase.
For additional information about the One St. Lucie Community Homelessness Task Force, please contact Bruce Cady at 772-559-3146 orbruce@tchelpspot.org.
