There are no doors to knock on for this census. Volunteers to begin annual homeless count

For 2017, Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness in Sarasota, with help from Turning Points in Manatee County, recorded 570 homeless people in Manatee County and 877 in Sarasota County.

To get those statistics was not easy.

There are no doors to knock on to talk to a homeless person.

To get these statistics, which are vitally important to be able to track trends in the homeless population of the two counties, volunteers have to go to where the homeless live, including outdoor camps, along sidewalks, near abandoned buildings, inside shelters and through pantries where free food is served.

Beginning at 3 p.m. Monday, a team of 50 volunteers from Turning Points, led by volunteer coordinator Cheryl Hedger, and a group from Suncoast in Sarasota, will once again go out into the community to take the 2018 annual homeless census, which is part of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Point-in-Time Survey.

“It’s important because we want to look at trends, year to year,” Hedger said Sunday. “The best way to serve the homeless is to do this survey, because things do change. We want to see how many families are out there. We want to see how many veterans are out there. We want to know how many homeless we have compared to six years ago. This survey helps us improve services to meet those changes.”

The Point-in-Time homeless survey is actually for 24 hours, from 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29, to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, but Manatee’s volunteers will go out for a week to reach more homeless residents and ask them where they were during the 24-hour period, Hedger said.

“We will go throughout Manatee County,” Hedger said. “We go through downtown Bradenton, Palmetto, to the south end of Manatee, near University Parkway. We go to Oneco, Myakka City, pretty much everywhere. The Pride Park area. Wherever homeless congregate we go, whatever organizations serve the homeless, we will be there.”

The first question the volunteers ask someone is usually, “Where did you sleep last night?” said Adell Erozer, executive director of Turning Points, the Bradenton nonprofit whose mission is to prevent homelessness and help those who are already homeless.

That question is important because defining homeless is difficult. If someone is sleeping outside, that is clear-cut homelessness, as is sleeping in an always-open U.S. Postal Service building lobby or a bus station or in a car.

“By doing the survey, we are also complying with a Housing and Urban Development requirement,” Erozer added, explaining that the number of homeless has a bearing on funds local agencies receive to help them.

This year, volunteers will try to get first names, last initials and birthdays to avoid duplication, Hedger said.

This story was originally published January 28, 2018 at 5:06 PM with the headline "There are no doors to knock on for this census. Volunteers to begin annual homeless count."