Homeless Count 2009 – affected families on the rise
On January 28 and 29, a dozen staff members from AAF volunteered to participate in the bi-annual “point in time” homeless count for the Palm Beach County Homeless and Housing Alliance. The Alliance is the local Homeless Continuum of Care entity required by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and it is the planning and evaluation body for the County’s homeless service delivery system.
The Homeless Count is a huge, well-coordinated event held in one 24-hour period. Volunteers from a score of organizations visit soup kitchens, churches, shelters, parks – any site where there may be individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The volunteers interview people and gather statistics to feed into a central database, and a snapshot is taken of the degree of homelessness in the County.
These are important statistics for a variety of reasons, but probably most important, they are included in the Homeless and Housing Alliance grant applications and reports sent to HUD to bring dollars into the County for shelters and supportive services.
Not surprisingly, given the state of the economy, we found that the number of homeless individuals in Palm Beach County has gone up more than 20% since 2007. These are especially sad statistics when one considers that they include families with children.
