Teams canvass abandoned buildings, woods to count homeless

A group of volunteers spent Wednesday morning canvassing the area looking for people who slept unsheltered or in places not meant for human habitation.

The Point-In-Time Count is an annual nationwide effort in January, and in Ohio, it is conducted the fourth Tuesday night of the month and into the early morning hours the next day, according to Kathleen Shanahan, the program coordinator with Montgomery County housing and homeless solutions.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses the counts to help determine funding.

Five teams of volunteers canvassed known locations looking for people sleeping under bridges, in the woods, in abandoned buildings or in cars.

“We want to make sure everyone is counted, so whatever the need is, we’ve captured it,” Shanahan said. “Sometimes they’ve been living outside for years. Our goal is to successfully move them into housing.”

Shanahan said the number of homeless people found during the annual count is typically weather dependent, but in the last couple of years, it’s ranged from 30 to 40 people. She said outreach workers are out year-round searching for people.

Volunteers on Wednesday morning had hats, blankets, gloves and hand warmers for those they found, as well as information about how organizations can help the homeless.

“We are committed to making a difference in people’s lives,” Shanahan said. “Many of us have an image of what somebody looks like who’s homeless — probably a man, probably addicted to alcohol or drugs, with serious mental health issues. We do see people like that, but that is not everybody who’s homeless. On a given night like this, we’ll see family with kids, single women, people who have serious issues or don’t.”

Later in the day Wednesday, other teams surveyed individuals at area meal sites, including Project Blessing, Life Enrichment Center and House of Bread. Surveys also were conducted at the Samaritan Homeless Clinic and CityHeart.

This year, the street teams included volunteers from PATH, Montgomery County Homeless Solutions, Homefull, VA Medical Center, Daybreak, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department and the Dayton Police Department.

Darlene Bell, the street outreach manager for Daybreak, said a successful count would be not finding anyone, because that would mean they’re either safe or in a shelter.

“We pray that we don’t find people out in the freezing cold,” Bell said. “This year, we got lucky. It’s not so bad out. But there have been years where we’re out in this for half an hour and we can’t feel our fingers or toes. You’ve got people wandering the streets all night long, and I don’t know how they do it. It’s very sad.”

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