In a small room on the first floor of the Akron-Summit County Public Library, social service volunteers asked everyone who entered the same basic question: “Where are you sleeping tonight?”
Some answers came easily — at a friend’s house, at the Haven of Rest — while others had no idea.
The question was the first of several in a survey conducted by Summit County Continuum of Care (CoC) agencies during their annual Point in Time Homeless Count, which takes place at the end of every January.
The CoC is a group of nonprofit agencies and organizations dedicated to eliminating homelessness and improving housing options in the county.
On Tuesday, about 75 volunteers, most from participating CoC agencies, took to the streets to count how many homeless people there were and hand out donated supplies such as hats, scarves and personal hygiene packs.
Volunteers also set up booths in common areas the homeless use during the day, such as the library, the Akron Metro Transit Center, churches and meal stations.
The count considers varying degrees of homelessness. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) defines homeless as “people who are living in a place not meant for human habitation, in emergency shelter, in transitional housing, or are exiting an institution where they temporarily resided.”
The CoC also includes numbers from homeless shelters in its final report to HUD, which provides federal funding to the county for homeless efforts.
Effects of funding
That funding has made a big difference in the past two years especially, said Joe Scalise, chairman of the Point in Time committee.
In 2014, they counted 61 unsheltered homeless veterans in the area.
“Last year, we started to really see the effects of that funding in our community when we counted seven [homeless veterans],” Scalise said, adding Summit County is “getting real close” to ending chronic and veteran homelessness.
The number of homeless people in the county overall was down last year as well, from 891 in 2015 to 761 in 2016. Scalise attributes the decline to the CoC’s rapid rehousing efforts, assisted by homeless housing complexes such as the Commons at Madeline Park.
“Those beds really impacted our ability to house chronically homeless folks,” Scalise said, noting there are now only seven chronically homeless people in Summit County on the waiting list for permanent housing.
CoC prioritizes permanent housing for the chronically homeless, which is defined by HUD as a person with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.
Scalise said the goal is to end chronic homelessness in Summit County by the end of 2017.
The official count from 2017 won’t be available until February.
Hopeful sign
Traffic to the stand in the library was slow compared to past years, though, “and maybe that’s promising,” said volunteer Lauren Green-Hull, who is the enforcement director at Fair Housing Contact Service Inc.
But as the afternoon edged on, people began trickling in to check out the setup. Volunteers asked questions to determine how long they had been homeless, if they had a family and any other special circumstances, like being a past veteran or having a mental illness.
Kelly Shelton emerged from the room with a handful of granola bars, a few pairs of socks and a grin stretched across her face.
“It’s great people can get help,” said Shelton, who has been homeless since July. “Keep up the good work.”
Other tabulations
In addition to static counts, the CoC also conducted walk-through counts Monday and Tuesday nights.
A few homeless people work directly with the agencies to help them find where larger groups of the homeless reside.
Even some volunteers were homeless at one point, like Vicky Shockey, who worked the booth at the Metro Transit Center on Tuesday.
“I’m a big help to them, they say,” Shockey said. “I always felt I never mattered, like I could never do anything right. But here, I feel like I’m doing something right.”
As she recalled the several homeless children she handed hats and scarves to throughout the day, her eyes welled with tears.
“I think it’s a great program,” Shockey said. “I’ve seen some happy faces today from the little ones.”
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom .