NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 28, 2016
CONTACT: Stacy Radosevich,
Homeless Programs Planner
218-726-2543
Annual homeless count in St. Louis County to be
conducted this week
Despite this winter's relatively mild weather, living outdoors without a home would be a brutal existence. Yet that's the reality for some people in our community who, for a variety of reasons, avoid shelters and risk winter’s elements.
How many people live this way, as “unsheltered homeless”, is the focus of an annual count, which St. Louis County’s Public Health and Human Service Department is conducting beginning this week. The County is working with community service providers and agencies to complete a federally required Point in Time Homeless Count. The purpose is to identify people who are homeless and not staying in a shelter tonight,Thursday, January 28, 2016.
An “unsheltered homeless” person, for this count, is defined as having a primary nighttime residence that is a place not meant for human habitation. Examples include a car, park, abandoned building or storage unit, bus or train station, airport, campground or woods. Additionally, the count seeks to identify “doubled up” households – those that have taken in extra family or friends who have nowhere else to go. People living in this situation meet the state’s definition of homeless.
This is an important count because money and resources awarded to communities to fight homelessness are based on documented counts of homeless persons and families. In 2015, the Point in Time Count tallied 151 homeless unsheltered individuals. Eleven of those people are veterans.
St. Louis County will be collecting information beginning tomorrow, January 29, through February 5, in order to find and document where homeless people spent the night of January 28. For citizens who have information or for people who are homeless and willing to complete a brief, five-minute survey, county staff and other partners will be at the following locations on Friday, January 29, in Duluth:
- Government Services Center (lobby), 320 West 2nd Street, 9 a.m. to noon
- Union Gospel Mission, 219 East 1st Street, during breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Damiano Center, 206 West 4th Street, during breakfast, lunch and dinner
- AICHO-Gimaajii at Homeless Connect, 202 West 2nd Street, noon to 3 p.m.
- Life House, 102 West 1st Street, during lunch and from 3 to 6 p.m.
In northern St. Louis County, surveys can be completed at:
- Virginia HRA Community Room, 442 Pine Mill Court, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Note: Arrowhead Transit will provide free transportation within Virginia to and from this location.)
- Access North, 1309 East 40th Street, Hibbing, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Veterans Service Offices at the Hibbing Courthouse and St. Louis County Service Center in Ely
For questions in Duluth contact Stacy Radosevich at (218) 726-2543 or on the Range contact AEOA at (218) 749-2912.
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 This bedding was found under a stairwell in a Duluth parking ramp. St. Louis County and area agencies that serve the homeless will be conducting a survey to track how many people in county are homeless and unsheltered on the night of January 28. This count is important because many grant programs aimed at combating homelessness base their funding decisions on the results from this survey.
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