Press release from the Department of Health and Human Services:

The Humboldt Housing and Homeless Coalition (HHHC) is looking for volunteers to participate in the Jan. 23 Point-in-Time (PIT) count to connect with people experiencing homelessness in the community.

The count is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requirement. Numbers from the biennial count are used by the state of California to allocate funding to counties to address homelessness and housing.

“The more volunteers we have, the more people we can count which will make more funding available to us,” said Sally Hewitt, senior program manager at the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services and co-chair of the HHHC. This information is also used by local planning departments and nonprofit agencies in applications for grant funding and planning.

Volunteers from local nonprofits and other community-based organizations have signed up, but more are still needed.

Volunteers will gather into teams early on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 23, and start counting in their assigned territories at 7:05 a.m., finishing around noon. In addition to a head count, volunteers will ask people where they slept the night before and gather other general demographic information.

For more information about the PIT or to volunteer, contact Robert Ward at 707-441-5035 or RWard@co.humboldt.ca.us  RWard@co.humboldt.ca.us . Volunteers can also sign up at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8TSZQ5W. Training will be available the week before the count.

The HHHC is a coalition of housing advocates, businesses, funders, elected officials, services and housing providers, faith-based organizations and other community stakeholders working together to identify and address local housing needs. In Humboldt County, the HHHC is the lead organization for homeless issues and the federally designated Continuum of Care. For more information about the HHHC, visit its website at http://www.humboldthousing.org/.