LAWRENCE

The Office of Planning and Development will be conducting its annual Point in Time Count, beginning on Wednesday, January 29 at 6:00PM and ending on Thursday, January 30 at 6:00PM.

The Annual Homeless Assessment Report Part I (AHAR) provides estimates of people who are in shelter and in unsheltered locations on a single night. These counts, known as the Point-in-Time (PIT) counts, are required by HUD, particularly for entitlement communities like Lawrence that receive HUD funding annually. PIT counts are conducted by communities nationwide, and typically occur during the last week in January of each year. As a city, we want to make sure those who are homeless are counted and are accurately represented.

We need your help!! We are currently looking for volunteers to help us with the count and surveying of our homeless population. Counting will be done in the early hours of the morning when observations are necessary, or when the situations during the day warrant that it is safer to do a count. At all other times, we will be completing actual surveys with the homeless.

The results of our Point in Time count determines federal funding that comes to the city for services, programs and resources, for housing and homelessness.

If you would like to help, please contact Sandy Guerrier, our Homelessness Initiative Coordinator, by Wednesday, January 23, to talk about ways you can help. Sandy can be reached at sguerrier@cityoflawrence.com / 978-620-3523.

We will be holding orientation sessions for volunteers on Thursday, Jan. 24, at 3:00pm & 5:30pm, and on Friday, Jan. 25, at 3pm. When calling or emailing to enlist as a volunteer, please let Sandy know what date and time would work best for you to participate in one of these sessions.