The Missouri Association for Social Welfare (MASW) will conduct its annual summer Point in Time (PIT) count Wednesday. The exercise is designed to document the number of people who qualify as homeless in the 101 Missouri counties that compromise the Balance of State Continuum of Care (BoS CoC).
The count is orchestrated locally by the Texas County Food Pantry and carried out by several local agencies within the BoS CoC’s nine county Region Eight. Food Pantry Intake Specialist Melanie Self is the lead for the region’s PIT count.
“We are in need of volunteers to help conduct the count,” Self said. “These numbers are reported to HUD, which helps us in sheltering the homeless in our communities.”
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines unsheltered homeless as “an individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate night time residence.” That means persons sleeping in a place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, camping ground, or other place not meant for human habitation.
“Sheltered” data is gathered from social service agencies and organizations providing emergency shelter, safe haven, transitional housing, or honoring hotel/motel vouchers paid for by charitable organizations.
The local PIT count only documents unsheltered homeless people, primarily because the county lacks organized shelters for homeless people.
Data gathered by the MASW in July 2012 indicated there were a total of 283 homeless persons in Region Eight. Of those, 202 were unsheltered. “A staggering 38-percent of those were children,” Self said.
To volunteer for this summer’s PIT count in Texas County, call the food pantry at 417-967-4484.