COLUMBUS – Teams of volunteers fanned out across Columbus this morning to take part in the annual count of people living on the streets of Columbus or in homeless shelters.
The Community Shelter Board coordinates the annual Point in Time Count, which is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cities nationwide conduct the count in late January.
Last year, the count found 1,721 juveniles and adults in Columbus and Franklin County were homeless, most of them in shelters or transitional housing, but 198 of them living on the streets.
In addition to outreach teams who will count those people living on the streets or encampments early in the morning, volunteers will tally homeless people served by soup kitchens and other meal sites, service agencies with homeless clients will provide numbers and ”magnet events” will be held at warming stations and other locations where homeless people congregate.
The board’s management information system will be used to calculate the final number.