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Local homeless count to be gathered this week

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PARKERSBURG — Volunteers will be going out into the community this week to do a count of homeless people to gather data and other information that will be used in determining what assistance can be given locally.

A Point-in-Time (PIT) count of homeless individuals will be done in the Marietta area on Tuesday and in the Parkersburg/Vienna area on Wednesday.

Volunteers will be going out into the community in Washington County at 4 p.m. Tuesday and volunteers will be going out into the community in Wood County at 4 p.m. on Wednesday for 24 hours each. The volunteers will be going to areas where they believe the homeless are and gather information from people.

The PIT count is done annually nationwide during the last two weeks of January as part of requirements from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Washington Morgan County Community Action Director of Planning and Development Dawn Rauch said they participate in the count every year through the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO).

“It provides a snapshot of the homeless individuals in our community,” she said. “The state compiles that data and shows the state of homelessness across the state of Ohio.”

They will be sending their people out to areas that have been identified as potential locations where homeless individuals are staying, Rauch said.

They then do a survey of the individuals they locate, including age, sex, race and other information including where the individual was located, whether they are at a shelter or unsheltered (on the street, sleeping in a car or somewhere not meant for human habitation).

Since Washington County is considered a more rural county, a lot of efforts will be focused around the Marietta/Reno area. Since the city recently opened up the Armory for people to come in and get warm officials will be surveying the people gathering there.

“We will be able to approach those individuals easier to get the information,” Rauch said.

The count will be done mostly in the evening as people get settled in to where they will be for the night.

The count follows census tracks that have the highest probability. In Washington County there were four census tracts that are going to be counted. Those are 205, 208, 210 and 212 which covers Marietta, Harmar and out past Walmart and into the Reno area.

The Winter 2024 count last January had 33 individuals who were located that evening. Later in the year, Community Action partnered with the City of Marietta to do a summer count in the daytime and they identified 39 homeless individuals in August 2024.

“Those numbers are put in an algorithm and we get a statistical estimate in Washington County and the state of Ohio as a whole on areas experiencing homelessness on a given night,” Rauch said.

For more information on what is happening on the count in Washington County, call 740-373-3745.

A similar process is happening in Wood County, West Virginia and other counties across the state.

Dawn Werry, Housing Stabilization Case Manager with West Virginia Coalition To End Homelessness, said the winter count can give a more accurate count of those experiencing homelessness.

“For 24 hours we hit the streets and all of the known locations within our community to try and engage as many individuals that are experiencing homelessness and ask them a few questions,” she said, adding the surveys are done the last 10 days of January nationwide.

In Wood County, they will have 15-20 people going out and working to locate people.

The questions their volunteers ask include how long has the individual has been experiencing homelessness, how long have they been in this community, gender, ethnicity details and where they come from.

“We can gleam a lot of data from that information that is valuable to help educate the community and get more resources within the community,” Werry said.

One of the biggest needs is for affordable housing as well as people willing to work with the homeless population.

The Wood County count in January 2023 found 79 unsheltered and 108 in the shelters at Latrobe Street Mission, the Salvation Army and within programs within the West Virginia Children’s Home Society in Wood County, Werry said.

The January 2024 count found 88 who were unsheltered and 88 in the shelters and 14 observations (where volunteers saw someone sleeping outside and whether they were male or female.)

Volunteers typically focus on the Parkersburg/Vienna areas, beginning at 4 p.m. Wednesday and go through the night until 3:59 p.m. Thursday.

“The hope is to identify those experiencing homelessness, how long they have been homeless and make the community aware so they can secure more resources, including mental health resources and housing which is the biggest need,” Werry said.

The information can be used for different organizations to apply for federal grants to help. The information also makes other organizations in the area aware of what is happening and they might be able to apply for funding or use their own resources to be able to provide assistance.

“We are hoping more organizations will come on board and support housing initiatives to get people off the streets,” Werry said.

She said the goal is to get homeless individuals stabilized, employed, into housing and be self-sustaining.

Werry said they are looking for people who can help conduct the surveys, even if they can only give an hour of time or so.

For more information on what is happening on the count in Wood County, call 304-931-3341 or (304) 842-9522 .

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