ORLANDO, Fla. — Steven Hamilton spent 12 years living on the streets.

“I've been there, done it,” he said.

But now, he hands out brown-bagged lunches to other homeless people every weekday at The Salvation Army Orlando Area Command. It’s one of the duties Hamilton completes for the transitional program he’s a part of at the Salvation Army’s men’s shelter, where he’s lived for about three months. 

“The men in our transitional programs are assigned tasks to teach life skills,” said Majorie Pierre, public relations and marketing manager for The Salvation Army Orlando Area Command, in a written statement to Spectrum News. “The men in that program receive case management, assistance with permanent housing, and financial budgeting.”

Hamilton is one of more than 7,000 people in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties who have experienced homelessness in the last year, according to a new interactive data tool developed by the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness. The Community Snapshot on Homelessness — currently in beta mode — allows users to sort data by county and category of homeless individual, like domestic violence survivor or veteran.

Out of the current total of 7,270 homeless individuals between the three counties, Orange County has the highest number, with 3,546 people experiencing homelessness at some point during the last 12 months. That count includes people who are chronically homeless as well as people who are currently in emergency or transitional shelters. 

The data comes from the dozens of agencies in the tri-county region that are required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to track the housing services they provide to homeless people. While some information may currently be missing from the tool, about 85 percent of the region’s data is represented, according to Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network (HSN) of Central Florida. 

Are said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has generally caused this year’s regional homelessness counts to drop.

“There's just this huge dip in numbers when COVID hit,” Are said.

Part of that dip, Are said, can be attributed to Florida’s now-expired state eviction moratorium, which protected some renters from becoming homeless. But the numbers are also likely lower due to social distancing guidelines shelters have to abide by, which prohibit them from serving as many homeless or at-risk individuals as they normally could.

Users are encouraged to explore the beta version of the Community Snapshot on Homelessness and send any feedback, questions or issues they encounter to hmis@hsncfl.org. 

Molly Duerig is a Report for America corps member who is covering affordable housing for Spectrum News 13. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.