OGDEN — The Weber Housing Authority expanded its head count of the homeless this year from one night to a week in hopes of finding every person they can.
Every year, Utah counties survey the homeless population to help the state estimate how many people did not have a permanent home for that year and account for any changes in their demographics.
Last year’s head count was on a single night, but this year volunteers are walking the streets for five days to count the homeless who weren’t at shelters each morning.
“It’s totally different this year,” said Andi Watkins of Weber Housing Authority, which conducts the local count. By expanding the time frame, they hope to find as many homeless people as they can and improve the accuracy of the count, she said.
Marian Edmonds, executive director of Ogden Outreach, helped organize the count and felt going out during the day was safer and easier for the volunteers.
Food pantries in the county also are surveying any homeless who visit during the week to count those who were not accounted for at the shelters or in the street count.
Volunteers fanned out across Ogden visiting places homeless people may frequent such as abandoned buildings, the downtown area and along the Ogden River.
Deja Padilla and Celia Pawlowich, case workers at St. Anne’s Center, a homeless shelter in Ogden, were among the volunteers who surveyed the homeless and handed out hygiene kits.
Shelby Woods, a 54-year-old woman who has been homeless off and on for about three years, was contacted by Padilla and Pawlowich at the corner of 20th Street and Grant Avenue.
Woods said she was pleased to participate in the homeless survey. “Lord knows, it’s wonderful,” she said.
The head counts are traditionally held in winter when the greatest number of homeless are likely to congregate in shelters and rescue missions. The state will publish the data in its annual homelessness report, which usually comes out in the fall.
According to last year’s report, Weber County volunteers counted 279 homeless people. Using this information, the state estimated that there were 1,203 people without a permanent home in Weber County during 2011.
That’s an improvement over 2010, which the state reports had 1,241 homeless people in Weber County. The county also reduced its number of chronic homeless from 86 in 2010 to 64 in 2011.
Weber’s numbers were about double the amount in Davis County and 10 times the amount in Box Elder County. There were no homeless people in Morgan County in 2011, according to the report.
The St. Anne’s Center is in the process of constructing a new and bigger shelter in Ogden called The Lantern House at 33rd Street and Pacific Avenue.
The count ends Wednesday.
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