Unsheltered Homeless Count Campaign Holds Event To Count Local Population

On Wednesday, there was an attempt to count the local homeless population. The count took place at the Kitchen, Incorporated and at the Missouri Hotel in Springfield. To help get an accurate count, hundreds of people and many local businesses gave their support. KSMU’s Adam Hammons reports.

Throughout this past week, the word was spread throughout the city that a special event was to be held for anybody willing to come. The event was to be not only a way to reach out to individuals and families who are homeless, but to also get an accurate count of that population.Alissa Jecklin helped organize the count. She explains how the event came together.“We served breakfast, Village Inn donated pancake breakfast for us. We had a huge barbeque lunch. We do raffles for prizes if they come in and do interviews with us and answer some questions. And just kind of have things going on all day for them to do.”Jecklin went on to say that they also had local volunteers out in the community just talking with people.All of this work was designed to get an accurate count of the homeless population in Greene County. With this number, officials can report it to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and receive a certain amount of money for affordable homes.To help create an event that would facilitate the count, the local community came out to support the cause. Jecklin talks about how much she appreciates the help. “We rely on the community support so much which I feel like we’re getting. We really appreciate that. Volunteers, we do everything on donations. So it really takes the entire community in order for us to pull this off.”The homeless population count in Southwest Missouri took place in conjunction with a statewide count.All of this information will assist in the work of the Governor’s Committee to End Homelessness in Missouri.For KSMU News, I’m Adam Hammons.