Odessa Links releases Point in Time count

Mar. 10—Since last year, the number of homeless people in Odessa has increased, according to the annual Point in Time Count conducted by trained volunteers Jan. 23.

Odessa Links, in association with the Texas Homeless Network, Odessa Homeless Coalition and volunteers from the community, conducted Odessa's 2025 Point-in-Time (PIT) Homeless Count. On Monday, they presented their findings at the City of Odessa Municipal Plaza. The volunteers conducted a count and survey of people in the community staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing, and unsheltered locations such as outdoor encampments, streets, cars, and other places not meant for habitation.



The count provides a 24-hour "snapshot" for the number of people experiencing homelessness and the key characteristics of individuals and families, a news release detailed. The PIT Count results indicate the minimum number of people experiencing homelessness in the community on any given night. However, other forms of homelessness, such as temporarily staying with friends or having enough funds for a hotel or motel, are not included in the PIT Count, under United States Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines.

As a result, the PIT Count data only represents a fraction of the homeless population in Odessa, the release stated. The count found that the total number of unsheltered people in Odessa was 212 compared to 135 in 2024. In 2023, it was 68 and in 2022, 60.

Of the 212, 126 were sheltered homeless and 86 were unsheltered. The increased count was likely due to the frigid weather that came through the area during the count time period, Jesus Gomez, Odessa Homeless Coalition coordinator, said. Sheltered homelessness are people or families staying at the Salvation Army, Jesus House, Door of Hope or Crisis Center of West Texas, for example, and are receiving support or case management services.

Unsheltered people are living in uninhabitable circumstances, like an abandoned building, or their car, and not having access to water and other services, Gomez said. Andrea Quiroz, executive director of Odessa Links, acknowledged key partners in the count. "The City of Odessa has partnered up with us this year, Community Development, code enforcers (and the) Odessa Police Department.

We had officers go out to the encampments. The geointelligence, they helped out tremendously, because they actually mapped out those encampments that were given to us by the code enforcers and police department, which made it very simple and easy for our volunteers to know the actual location of where they were at," Quiroz said. She expressed appreciation to city leadership and Councilman Greg Connell who connected Odessa Links with the other city departments.

"We couldn't have done this without our community organizations — our shelters, Jesus House, Crisis Center, Family Promise of Odessa, Door of Hope, and, of course, the Salvation Army of Odessa and several community volunteers," Quiroz said. She added that they collaborated this year with the Midland Homeless Coalition. The Texas Homeless Network also spoke to a city-wide Homeless Coalition meeting and has been working hard to make sure they don't have duplication or services or a duplicated count.

"But most importantly, as I always say, those are just numbers. There's a person behind that number," Quiroz said. The PIT Count tells what the impact of homelessness is on the community.

It also helps people understand what the needs are, how people are impacted and what can be done as a community help those that are impacted by homelessness. Before and after the PIT Count, they tried to prevent duplication by preparing bags with different kinds of snacks, survival guides, blankets, gloves and hand warmers, Gomez said. The bags and their colors were an identifier to the team so they knew by the bag or backpack that they had already been approached.

The Salvation Army also used wrist bands for that purpose, Gomez said. Odessa Links also distributed bus passes for homeless people so they could have access to transportation. Connell said there were two groups — one that counted at shelters and one, that he went with, went to the tents.

"It was a cold morning that morning, we were taking hot coffee and sandwich food, that type of thing to them. I slept in a warm, comfortable bed and these individuals, were out in a tent with a ground surface floor, with no heating. It's just amazing.

But, homeless in general, people say that they're somewhere. Well, actually, they're here; they're all around us ..

. Every homeless situation affects me, but the the two that really affect me personally as a veteran would be our veterans that are out there. Second would be children that are involved.

We just have to have a safety net for (these) individuals. "I've told a story one time, and I think it's very applicable that life, as we all can experience individually, is a juggling act. Those balls are car payments, rent, mortgage, health issues that come up.

If too many of those balls drop at the same time ...

we're homeless," Connell said. He added that this was depicted in the movie "No Address" where normal, everyday families found themselves homeless because too many balls dropped. "From the city aspect, we have some development people here that are doing some beautiful things with building homes for those that qualify for it.

The city does what the city can, but we are mainly focused on medical services, police services and zoning and everything it takes to run a city. I'm really thankful for the Odessa Homeless Coalition that we have been putting together, because that is something that's workable, that we can do. That is a coalition of the nonprofits, the churches, organizations, all the resources and tools," Connell said.

He added that he has visited the Door of Hope and Salvation Army shelters. "We do have ongoing shelters, and we do also have programs set to help people that are low income with groceries and food and things like that. We have a lot of things going, but this needs to be a continued push and an effort to strengthen that coalition, to bring those services where they're effective, for our homeless," Connell said.

On March 12, Gomez, Connell and Oscar Romo, Odessa Links case manager, are going to Austin for Texas Capitol Day for Homelessness. "We will be before the legislators and state representatives. We will be talking to them about the impact (of homelessness) in our community, what the needs are in our community, how can we improve in that aspect (and) how they can support us.

...

Following that meeting, we will have a scheduled steering committee (meeting). "The steering committee is the members that are part of the Odessa Homeless Coalition that helps us determine the direction of how and what we need to do to improve the homeless situation in Odessa," Gomez said. Gomez added that he wants to make legislators aware of what's going on in the community.

"I think that, because we're a hub for oil, there's this thought process that nobody's suffering and everybody's raking in the cash. But that's not the reality. There are real people having real circumstances, dealing with real difficult issues.

One of the families that we were able to assist was a gentleman, a single father with two kids. ..

. When they came into our program, (we were) able to connect them to training. .

.. From that training, they were able to escalate in their organization, the workforce, to the point where they didn't need our services anymore, so that was great.

That's a success story. We do still do follow-ups accordingly, as Andrea mentioned, just to check in, making sure that they're continuing to exercise the principles that we teach them through case management," he added. Working at Odessa Links and the Homeless Coalition has given Gomez a different perspective on what homelessness is.

"It's (given) me the perspective that ...

some people are not addicts; they just had a rough situation. They went through divorce, medical issues, loss of a job, different things that sometimes don't prepare us for what comes in the next season," Gomez said. Odessa Point in Time count Total: 212 — Number of children (under age 18): 42 — Number of youth (18-24): 6 — Number of adults (25-34): 35 — Number of adults (35-44): 54 — Number of adults (45-54): 31 — Number of adults (55-64): 31 — Number of adults (age 65 or older): 13 — Observed age 25 or older: 0 — Unknown Age: 0 — Chronically Homeless: 24 — Veterans: 10.