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According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, New York state alone has almost 100,000 homeless residents, roughly 46 for every 10,000 New Yorkers.
Locally, getting a headcount of those without shelter in this harsh winter weather is what’s going to be what makes a big difference in the long run.
“It’s a count that occurs across the entire country. And we’re organizing it here in Central New York,” said Fred Hintz of the Housing and Homeless Coalition of CNY as he headed out on a brisk night.
It was the night that an annual survey took place during the last week and a half of January.
“We’re doing this to get an accurate count of everyone who is staying outside. We’re also getting a count including all of the shelters and any other facilities folks might be using across the county to say more,” said Hintz.
No matter what part of New York you call home, the temperature and weather events can be lethal to those out on the streets, some of those who see no other choice.
“There is space available in shelters right now, but for a lot of different reasons, folks might choose that they don’t want to stay at one of the shelters,” said Hintz. “And so those are the folks we’re going out to define.”
These are not just numbers, but people who Hintz said deserve to have a fighting chance and resources. While the Housing and Homeless Coalition works on a broader scale, they advocate for local assistance.
“Two-one-one (211) works with our street outreach teams in the community really closely. They’ll send someone out to talk to somebody. They can bring somebody into a shelter or work with them to get into like a permanent housing situation,” said Hintz.
Hours of the night are dedicated to actively looking for people. Those found are asked to take part in a survey.
“It’s basic demographic information, some information about how long folks have been outside,” he said. “It’s about as long as the Census survey. So it’s really not many questions at all.”
Those few questions may not fix a bleak situation.
“Folks aren’t outside because they want to live outside. So we got to remember that,” said Hintz.
But they do help.
“We can make sure that we’re advocating for, you know, more services that people need, more housing that people need,” Hintz said. “This counting effort, though, is especially important to help people get seen at a larger level.”
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