MARQUETTE, MI-- Volunteers are needed to count homeless persons in the Marquette area.
This year’s effort to measure the scale of homelessness--known as the Point-in-Time count--begins at midnight Wednesday.
Doug Russell is the executive director of shelter coalition Room at the Inn. He says for 24 hours volunteers will canvass the area and count the number of homeless they encounter. The government then takes uses the data to provide rental subsidies and other resources to those who qualify. Russell says the PIT count will determine how many vouchers the region will receive.
“Does Marquette County need more vouchers or fewer vouchers, based on the PIT count? And it’s important for us to be as accurate as possible in determining in the current state… the number of homeless in our area,” he says.
Russell notes “couch surfers”—people who sleep on friends’ couches because they don’t have a permanent home of their own—are also considered to be homeless.
To volunteer or for more information, call 227-9171 or e-mail douglas@roomattheinn.org.
