Public servants across eight counties, including Carter, took part in the annual 24-hour Point in Time homeless count offers by the Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness (ARCH) to document the amount of homeless individuals within the region.
The initiative began Tuesday at noon and lasted to Wednesday. Providing the snapshot into the issue allows the possible grant funding moving forward, according to Dr. Joy Drinnon, chair of the ARCH board of directors.
“It is very helpful,” she said about the county. “We use the numbers to justify grant funding from HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) for grant funding housing and support services for the homeless.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses specific parameters when determining if an individual or family is homeless. According to the HUD website, there are four federally defined categories which families might qualify as homeless, including:
• imminent risk of homelessness
• Homeless under other federal statutes
• fleeing/attempting to flee domestic violence
• literally homeless
“As of right now, our count in Carter County stands at 22,” Drinnon told the Elizabethton Star Wednesday evening. To count as homeless, individuals had to be outside, in a tent or camper on the night of Tuesday, Jan. 24.
The number is a growth compared to previous years, Drinnon added. The guidelines set by HUD is just one term used when defining homelessness. The McKinney-Vento Act is a federal law with a wider set of guidelines when defining homeless children.
“The number is larger when using that type of definition,” she said.
Needing help to identify the issue came in droves throughout the days, according to the chair. Along with commending the efforts of the TLC Center in Elizabethton, Drinnon thanked the efforts of Cheri Tinney with the public library and Carolyn Shrader, executive director of Red Legacy, to help identify the areas where homelessness is evident within the county.
“They went out Sunday and went out to identify the areas,” Drinnon said. “Without them doing the leg work, we wouldn’t be able to make this possible.”
Shrader and a small group of volunteers were staying busy during the day finding homeless individuals while the library staff manned the local survey post, providing breakfast, bags with necessities and other items.
With various businesses chipping in to help the county with the project, there’s still work to be done, according to Drinnon.
ARCH encourages individuals that have not taken part in a survey or anybody that knows of a homeless situation to call the ARCH Care line (1-888-989-2273).