Friday, January 14, 2011

Volunteers needed for Jan. 28 homeless count

Friday, January 14, 2011 at 4:14 p.m.
Two hundred volunteers are needed Jan. 28 to help conduct San Diego County's annual survey of its poorest population: Its homeless.
The Regional Task Force on the Homeless will be conducting its so-called Point-In-Time count on Jan. 28 between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m., as part of a mandate from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which uses the information to allocate aid that will assist the unsheltered.
Results are included in city and county federal grant applications that are submitted to the federal department.
Volunteers, 300 of whom have already signed up for the effort, will fan out in teams, walking and driving, to conduct a visual count of people living in the streets that morning. Service providers will separately tally the number of people staying in shelters or other facilities. In addition, about 10 percent to 15 percent of everyone tallied will be surveyed by questionnaire.
Registration is available online at the website of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, www.rtfhsd.org.
In 2010, there were 8,574 found to be people living in shelters or on the street, and 4,599 of those without a roof, both figures up from the previous year.
matthew.hall@uniontrib.com  • (619) 293-1335 • Twitter @SDuncovered

No comments: