El Paso outreach crews head out to address ‘heart tugging’ homelessness in our community

EL PASO, TX (KVIA) — El Paso volunteers and outreach crews are coming together to address homelessness in our community. 

Emergence Health Network’s Unhoused Street Outreach Team collaborated with the El Paso Homeless Coalition for the city wide outreach effort on Thursday as part of the "Point in Time" count, an annual count of unhoused individuals in El Paso.

This count happens every year, on a single night in January.

Crews will canvass the county, covering alleys, ditches, and major intersections.

The focus is to gather data about both sheltered and unsheltered individuals and then send it to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to identify trends and determine what resources to fund.

Our ABC-7 crew rode along with the outreach crews to capture their effort around the city starting around 6:30 a.m.

The crews offered blankets, food, water, supplies and links to community resources to get help with mental health support and substance use concern. 

“A lot of programs sometimes require chronic homelessness, but we've seen an increase of people who don't have chronicity, meaning they haven't been on the streets for over a year,” Christine Gonzalez, program supervisor for the unhoused programs at Emergence Health Network, told ABC-7. “So they are giving more programs where you don't need that element and you're able to just get the assistance, regardless of how long you've been on the streets.”

Multiple local organizations came together to make this outreach possible, including Horizon Elementary, TXDoT, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger and the Braden Aboud Memorial Foundation.

"Point in Time" Lead Alex Vasquez from the El Paso Homeless Coalition said they are going around the city until about 2 p.m. or 3 p.m.

"It's the most amazing feeling because you know what? Being able to speak to our unhoused community and have that conversation, to see what what obstacles they have to overcome in something like none other," said Vasquez. "It's the most amazing feeling to be able to give them something warm, something to eat, and then also find out how we can serve our community better and what services we can bring to them."

Brian Murphy was a volunteer in the morning who shared how he felt going around the city.

"It's good to try to help, but it's kind of sad that people need this type of help, I feel," said Murphy. "I've seen folks out in the cold like this asking for money and it just really tugs at my heart."

If you would like to volunteer or donate to help the mission of the El Paso Homeless Coalition, you can call 915-843-2170.