They spent nearly an hour looking behind dumpsters and in the darkest corners of downtown alleys and in the warm, bright stairwells of several parking garages.
Nobody there.
“That’s a good thing,†Denise Packard said, as Tuesday’s rain turned to snow. “It means there’s not as many homeless.â€
The chair of the Lincoln Homeless Coalition was helping lead a team taking part in the annual Homelessness Point in Time count, designed to give government agencies and nonprofits a numerical benchmark of Lincoln’s homeless population, and for providers and outreach workers to collect information from the people they find living on the streets.
“It’s a snapshot,†said Lee Heflebower, supportive housing administrator for Community Action. “But it’s the best shot we get.â€
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Packard, Heflebower and a half-dozen others had gathered after dark Tuesday near 14th and N, assigned to cover downtown. Throughout the day, more than 20 people -- in addition to Lincoln and campus police officers -- covered 16 areas of Lincoln, including the bridges of Antelope Creek, the UNL campus, the mission and Matt Talbot Kitchen.
Similar counts were underway across the state, and the country. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department requires the annual counts in the last 10 days of January, in large part to determine federal funding for homeless programs.
The timing is important, Heflebower said. In colder months, homeless people are more inclined to seek shelter indoors, where they’re easier to find. And at the end of the month, they’re more likely to have run out of money and put themselves in a position to be counted.
The effort is designed to find all of the homeless living in shelters, transitional housing and on the streets. But it has its limits, Heflebower said, because it doesn’t reach the thousands -- “and there are literally thousands,†she said -- of homeless people in Lincoln staying with friends and relatives.
And Tuesday’s weather likely moved even more homeless inside for the night, she said.
“With the storm coming in, I think people found some alternate shelter. Which is good for them, but it makes it tougher for us to find them and count them.â€
The results of Tuesday’s count weren’t yet ready, but the number of unsheltered homeless has been falling, from a high of 125 in 2012 to 32 last year -- and organizers expect this year’s total to go even lower.
In fact, the downtown team walked for nearly an hour before finding Jeanette Hoer and Armond Schommer, trying to stay dry beneath an awning at 14th and O. They gave the two bottled water and granola bars and crackers, Heflebower crouching down to visit with Hoer about her recent hospitalization.
But they didn’t need to get any information from the pair. They already knew them, just as they knew the bearded panhandler at 13th and O, and the two at 12th and P, one outside of Starbucks, the other near the theater.
That’s a testament to Lincoln’s outreach workers, Packard said. They know just about every homeless person in Lincoln.
“They know what their status is and what their needs are,†she said. “It takes some time to build rapport with them, to get to know the person as a person. They don’t pass judgment on them.â€
Near the end of the search Tuesday, the team visited with James Crawford, who was holding a sign on P Street: “Applyin & Looking 4 Work!â€
Packard gave him a pair of gloves and a can of sardines. He already had the hot sauce, he said.
He also had a job interview, an apartment lined up and, as the team walked away, tears in his eyes. Something’s finally happening for me, the 45-year-old said.
“There’s good stuff going on with him,†Packard said.