HELENA- On Thursday, Jan 31, United Way of Lewis and Clark County will be holding its 20th annual Point In Time Survey.
Volunteers will begin administering the survey at 5 p.m. and continue overnight and into next week. The survey helps secure funding from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) enabling supporting organizations to better address and understand homeless and housing issues in the community.
Last year’s survey recorded 96 individuals in Helena alone who were in transitional housing or homeless.
CEO and President of United Way of Lewis and Clark Co., Alison Munson, described the survey and its history. “The annual Point In Time survey in United Way for Lewis and Clark area has been going on for 20 or so years, we have hand-out surveys for people working in our homeless population and we go out and survey,” said Munson.
God’s Love Shelter in Helena will provide and homemade turkey dinner Thursday night for those participating.
Munson says no personal identification is required.
“You don’t have to be scared to take the survey,” continued Munson. “We are trying to identify more resources and find out who is homeless, and what we can do to help, not by causing any issues for anyone.” All survey’s conducted are then scanned and recorded, as the information on the demographic of homelessness will be open to the public in several months.
Next year, United Way will take special notice to youth and adolescence in the homeless community.
To do your share in volunteering, go to United Way’s webpage.
Reporting by Christine Sullivan for MTN News
