FORT SMITH — Staff and volunteers from agencies that help the homeless in Fort Smith will spend the day today conducting an annual census of homeless people in the city.
The agencies plan to have staff members count homeless people who use their facilities today, and volunteers will comb the riverfront and other areas where unsheltered homeless people live and congregate in an effort to determine their numbers.
A homeless survey in Washington and Benton counties is scheduled for Jan. 31.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates that states conduct a “point-in time” survey every year to determine the number of homeless people who stay in shelters. Every other year, it also requires the survey to include those who are unsheltered, according to a news release from the Old Fort Homeless Coalition.
The coalition counts both sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in Fort Smith every year. Coalition President Ken Pyle said he believes annual data are important to show the community the need for a homeless campus the coalition plans to create south of downtown Fort Smith. The Riverview Hope Campus would provide most of the city’s homeless services in a central location.
The homeless census also is important because HUD uses its findings to allocate grant money to the state and to homeless shelters, Pyle said.
Though the coalition serves a six-county area, Fort Smith will be the only city in the coalition’s area to count its homeless, said coalition spokesman Amy Sherrill. The six counties in the region are Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Polk, Scott and Sebastian.
Agencies that work with the homeless in Fort Smith, such as the Next Step Day Room, Salvation Army and Community Rescue Mission, will conduct the confidential surveys and submit their numbers to the Next Step Day Room to be tallied, Sherrill said.
The tallied numbers will be sent to the Homeless Management Information System in Little Rock, which will compile the numbers from around the state, Sherrill said. The results will be publicized in about four weeks, she said.
Fort Smith’s point-in-time survey last year counted 211 homeless people, including 65 who weren’t in shelters, according to a news release from the coalition. In 2011, surveyors counted 235 homeless, including 82 who were unsheltered.
In Washington and Benton counties, the point-in-time survey reported 549 homeless in 2011.
Fort Smith point-in-time count volunteers will hand out “incentive bags” to homeless people who cooperate with the survey, according to a news release from the coalition. They contain such things as food, soft drinks, toiletries, bandages, cough drops and hand warmers.
The coalition also will sponsor an appearance at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Fort Smith Public Library by two authors who are touring the Southwest to call attention to homelessness.
Pat LaMarche and Diane Nilan are scheduled to present a 20-minute film about children and homelessness and to open a discussion with members of the coalition about efforts to help the homeless in the Fort Smith area.
“The visit by Diane Nilan and Pat LaMarche will be an opportunity for us to learn more about what is being achieved for the homeless in other communities as well as highlight the successes and plans for the future in our area,” Pyle said.
One of the coalition’s goals is to make the community aware of the role it can play in bringing relief to the homeless, he said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/22/2013