Staff Spotlight: Meet Andreia Thomas!
Communications Admin • December 26, 2018
Andreia Thomas, Grants Accountant with the Coalition for the Homeless, started with the organization in 2017 after previously working in the nonprofit sector. Originally from Bahia, Brazil, Andreia moved to Houston in 2006 for – in her words – “all things marriage and love.”
Abbie: Where did you grow up and what brought you to Houston?
Andreia: I’m originally from the Northeast area of Brazil, known as the State of Bahia. I lived there my entire life until I moved to Houston in 2006 for marriage, love, and other family plans.
Abbie: How long have you worked for the Coalition?
Andreia: It’ll be a year next month. I was laid off last year, in June, and I used to work for a company that also provided help. Whenever I lost that job I knew I wanted to stay in this sector and started searching for positions available in nonprofits, and that’s how I found myself here.
Abbie: Tell me a little about your role with the Coalition and what your day-to-day looks like?
Andreia: As a Grants Accountant, our day-to-day is reviewing and submitting reimbursement requests for the funders. And then we also process a large number of other requests for other recipients.
Abbie: What made you decide to go into this type of work?
Andreia: Well I have always like numbers and like that numbers can tell a story. You can figure out different issues and situations from the numbers. You can also learn about the story of the company and where it started to where it is now. Those type of things are really interesting to me. I received my Bachelors in Business Administration from a college in Brazil and am currently working on my Bachelors of Accounting from the University of Minnesota online; I have about a year and a half left for that one.
Abbie: Are these any projects you are currently working on?
Andreia: Right now my main project is learning as much as I can about grants, I was just recently put into this role. Especially learning about the regulations, what is required so we can comply, and how we can decrease the amount of findings or errors we have.
Abbie: What would you say your favorite thing about your job is?
Andreia: I really enjoy the reporting part of it. It’s funny to some people, also may be a little weird, but I love forms and filling them out correctly. Or even filtering out what is not correct on certain forms is fun to me.
Abbie: Do you have any hobbies outside of work?
Andreia: It has nothing to do with accounting! But I absolutely love fashion and sewing. I am currently starting my own brand of skirts called ‘Rosa Camara’ which is Portuguese and means Cool Rose in English. I have completed the project of starting an online store and am now working on the legal part with trademarks and everything else. I also want to eventually invest into finishing school and pursue a CMA (Certified Management Accountant) certification so I can mingle business and accounting.
Abbie: Tell us one fun fact about yourself!
Andreia: I’m a big Star Wars girl. So, I love Yoda. And I also love comics! Mostly Marvel and X-men. When I was a kid I used to collect comic books. My dad would take my sister and I to the booth in our neighborhood and we would buy Superman and X-men comics.
Houston, Texas (February 24, 2026) – This week, the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County (CFTH) is leading the annual Point-in-Time Homeless Count & Survey (“PIT Count”) to determine the number of people experiencing homelessness across Houston and throughout Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties. “We may see a slight uptick in the number this year, but we have a plan,” said Kelly Young, President & CEO of CFTH. “With the support of the City of Houston, Harris County, and private funders, we have been piloting new interventions to shorten the length of time people in our region experience homelessness. With adequate funding, we look forward to expanding those interventions to help people regain lives of self-determination.” CFTH coordinates the Houston region’s public-private homeless response system, The Way Home . Through this collaboration, The Way Home partners have successfully housed over 36,000 people since 2012. CFTH will release the results of Houston’s 2026 PIT Count in the summer, following independent verification by an epidemiologist. These findings will provide insight into how factors such as increases in the cost of living and the end of federal pandemic relief funding have impacted homelessness in our region. More information about the 2026 Point-in-Time Homeless Count & Survey The PIT Count offers a snapshot of how many people are experiencing homelessness in our region on a single night. This year, the “night of record” is Monday, Feb. 23. CFTH determines the number of people staying in shelters on that night by pulling records electronically from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) . The unsheltered count will be conducted on the following days, from Tuesday, Feb. 24 to Thursday, Feb. 26. More than 400 volunteers and staff of local nonprofit service provider partners will canvass the three-county region to survey people living unsheltered, using an app on their mobile devices. Results from the 2026 PIT Count will help gauge the progress of The Way Home’s ongoing collaborative efforts. It will also help CFTH and partner homeless outreach teams understand geographic shifts and target their outreach throughout the year. The PIT Count illuminates specific programmatic gaps and provides additional information needed to allocate resources most efficiently. The PIT Count is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) for the annual Continuum of Care (CoC) funding process. HUD furnishes the majority of funding for programs that provide housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness in the region. In 2024, HUD granted more than $71 million to the Houston area.
As lead agency to The Way Home Continuum of Care (CoC), CFTH is working with local governmental entities to advocate on behalf of people experiencing homelessness to ensure their needs are being considered as winter weather affects our region. We will make frequent updates as we receive information. Please check back often for the latest information. Last updated 02/01/2026 at 12:00 p.m.
While our system has helped thousands of people move from homelessness to housing, this year’s results highlight the need to broaden our approach.
