A person stands on a concrete bench under the Marion Street Bridge during a homeless camp’s eviction in January. The ARCHES Project said Friday it needs volunteers for an annual count to help collect data on the region’s homeless. (Troy Brynelson/Salem Reporter)
The yearly count of homeless people that helps drive federal funding for social services needs more volunteers, organizers say.
The ARCHES Project, coordinators of the annual point-in-time count, says it has roughly 40 out of 86 volunteers to go out into the community to count and survey the homeless.
Teams go through alleyways, business districts and to camps to talk with homeless people. The efforts yield data for state and local agencies and develop a snapshot of where homeless people in the Salem-Keizer area spent the previous night.
Jerry Stevens, volunteer from Keizer, said he has volunteered the last nine years and it has helped him connect more the homeless community.
“If you listen with any open mind you say ‘They’re afraid of the same things I am. They value the same things I do,’” said Stevens, 60. “It’s a really good experience.”
Sign-up information is linked below and the deadline is Monday.
Information gathered in the count includes a person’s age, disabilities, veteran status, length of homelessness and the reasons they became homeless. The data can influence how services are provided and how much money comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“It lets them know what our needs are,” said Ashley Hamilton, association program director at ARCHES.
Volunteers can choose a morning or afternoon shift on Jan. 30 and will be guided by a team lead. Some will work in mobile teams, walking through neighborhoods to count people. Others will be fixed at locations with clothes, food and other services to attract homeless people to come to them.
This year’s count will be more robust in rural areas of Marion and Polk counties, Hamilton said. ARCHES is working with churches, service providers and community groups in Santiam, Silverton, Stayton, and Mill City to reach homeless people before the official day of the count and gather demographic information.
Workers will then follow-up to ask where they spent the night of Jan. 29. With more days to find people, she’s hopeful more rural homeless people will be counted.
“That’s going to help elevate our numbers,” Hamilton said.
The one-night count in late January usually underestimates the number of homeless people in an area, Hamilton said. Last year’s count found 1,218 people, she said. The database ARCHES uses to keep track of homeless people accessing services in the region has entered 2,628 homeless people since October 2016.
Still, she said the effort is important because of the funding tied to it and the chance for people to get a better understanding of homelessness through volunteering.
“It’s going to take all of us to make a difference,” she said.
Stevens, who said he has had friends become homeless, said volunteering also helped him grasp all the ways people can fall into those circumstances and changed the way he looks at the community.
“It’s a challenging issue. It’s way more complicated than you think,” he said. “It kind of opens your eyes that there’s a whole different world out there than the little microcosm you live in.”
To sign-up:
Stationary Only – http://signup.com/go/QPobGYK
Mobile Only – http://signup.com/go/NPdSaYk
PIT count volunteer orientation: Monday January 28th, 5:30-7:00, First Church of the Nazarene, 1550 Market St NE, Salem
Have a tip? Contact reporters Rachel Alexander or Troy Brynelson at [email protected] or [email protected]
