Today is the Point in Time Homeless Count in Pinellas County.
Every day in Pinellas County there are scores of people sleeping in cars and, worse, on concrete. Many are young children expected to go to school and do just as well on standardized tests as everyone else.
Every other year, a collection of nonprofits and volunteers hits the street before dawn in an effort to get a handle on the county’s homeless population. Today teams will comb local parks, bus stops and shelters in order to get a good feel for how many people lack shelter.
And they don’t just count the homeless. Volunteers go down a complete list of questions with participants, questions include demographics, family and medical issues. Most are willing to participate, sharing with volunteers their stories of how thing got this bad for them.
In 2013, the last time the count was conducted, volunteers found 6,592 homeless people living in Pinellas County, 2,495 of them children.
Pictured are two of our volunteers from SVdP. #HopefortheHomeless #SVdP #PointinTime