The Missouri Balance of State (BoS) will conduct a count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals and families Wednesday to follow regulations set forth by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The Missouri BoS is a 101-county area that excludes counties in metropolitan areas. HUD requires counts during the last 10 days of January in odd years, to gauge progress toward national goals of reducing and ending homelessness. In addition to the biennial homeless census required by HUD, The Missouri Balance of State has and other metro Continua have elected to conduct one point-in-time (PIT) count annually to better track trends and needs of individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
Each county’s count leader is responsible for organizing, facilitating and reporting the unsheltered survey results to Missouri Housing Development Commission, which reports the numbers to HUD. Sheltered survey information is reported to the Institute for Community Alliances.
The Texas County Food Pantry will again oversee Texas County’s PIT count in 2015. To complete the point-in-time count, county leaders need large networks of volunteers to help complete surveys. To volunteer, call Tanya Pacecho at 417-967-4484.