BUFFALO, N.Y. — Volunteers from across Western New York hit the streets Wednesday night into Thursday morning to help count the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in our region.
Their work is used to calculate what's called the Point-in-Time (PIT) count. A count of sheltered and unsheltered people on a single night in January.
The number is used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to determine how well a region is helping people who are homeless, provide better insight into the need, and help with allocating funding.
"This year we have 100 volunteers," said Kexin Ma, the Executive Director of the Homeless Alliance of Western New York, which is responsible for conducting the survey.
2 On Your Side followed a group of eight volunteers from Cazenovia Recovery on Main Street in Buffalo, who were up at 6 a.m. searching in the cold, dark, and wet looking for anyone living in the same conditions around the metro area.
Their route was one of 40 around Niagara, Erie, Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming counties.
In recent years the number of individuals experiencing homelessness who are living in shelters in Western New York has grown.
"Our city has done a great job housing people providing them shelter, so I anticipate the unsheltered count will hopefully stay stable," Ma said.
Not finding people unsheltered and on the streets is considered a good thing, which was the case Thursday morning.
"The more we don't find people out here the more we are encouraged that the system we have is working," said Stacy Arlain, Housing Services Manager at Cazenovia Recovery, a residential substance use treatment provider.
Arlain had her staff volunteer Thursday, searching under viaducts, around the Commodore Perry Projects, and elsewhere around the City of Buffalo to give them first-hand experience with some of the individuals who participate in their programs.
"To show them what they've been living with so they better understand and can better empathize with our referrals when they start working with them to get them housed," Arlain said.
Volunteers carry gift cards, hats, gloves, bus passes, and other information that could help a homeless individual.
Arlain told 2 On Your Side why she volunteers is ...
"Well, the simplest answer is someone has to, and we have a homeless problem in America, and all over the nation there are workers like me, there are agencies like ours ... that are trying to fight the issue, fight the problem because everybody deserves the dignity of a home."
The final results from the Point-In-Time count are reported in March or early April.
Arlain and Ma encouraged anyone interested in helping others to volunteer next year. In the meantime, they said item donations and monetary ones go a long way in supporting the homeless community in Western New York.