Communities across San Luis Obispo County were filled with volunteers on Tuesday morning for the Homeless Point-in-Time Count.
A total of 43 volunteer groups participated, including 13 in San Luis Obispo and five in Morro Bay.
Kari Howell, San Luis Obispo County Social Services Homeless Management Information System Manager, said it takes about four months to sort through all the data collected.
“The folks on the PIT Count organizing team, we all have back-end access to the surveys that are completed through the survey application that folks are using out in the field so we’re able to see the surveys come in live,” Howell said.
Cal Poly students Alison Jones and Eleanor Olsen took part in the count for the first time.
“I like being personable with people and I feel like this is a good way to volunteer with the community and also like do that at the same time," Jones said.
“I think it’s really important that we have these outreach-like events for them," Olsen said. "And to like, get them the support and resources that they really need.”
They joined many returning volunteers.
“It was a great chance to kind of meet individuals face to face and get a real sense of the issue with persons that are unhoused,” said John Townsend, returning volunteer.
“Just being able to help out people and get them resources that they need," said Jesus Cortes, another returning volunteer. "Especially with my job working at the Good Samaritan, that is what I do, I do outreach and I go out in the community and try my best to help people.”
After some breakfast and a quick run-through, volunteers left to scope out their designated areas for at least three hours.
Amanda Grishop and Kirsten Anderson’s group surveyed an area near Cuesta College.
“We saw one person living in their car, a couple of cars that looked like someone might be living in, but we didn’t identify any people in them,” Grishop said.
After the count, Cortes said his group only encountered about five homeless people.
“For some individuals, they said that they've been homeless for well over 10 years," Cortes said. "Some said that it just recently started, so they were pretty happy to see us and that we gave them the little card with many other resources from the agencies around the area.”
Other volunteers said they counted fewer homeless people than in past years. Howell said that it is too early to call it a trend at this stage, but that if there are fewer people counted this year, it’s a good thing.
The data is typically released in the Spring.
