Homeless count, Motor City style....
Teams scour Detroit area to count homeless | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Teams scour Detroit area to count homeless | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Teams scour Detroit area to count homeless
By ERIC D. LAWRENCE • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • July 25, 2008
Sometimes the homeless hide in plain sight, especially before nightfall.
Near a grassy field on a side street in Hamtramck Thursday evening, a woman sat, cleaning the soles of her shoes.
When asked if she has a place to stay, she answered, “I stay here and there.”
The woman was exactly the kind of person a citywide homeless count was designed to find. Thursday’s event was organized by the Homeless Action Network of Detroit, University of Detroit Mercy's Leadership Development Institute and other groups as a kind of warm-up for a required count of the homeless in January, which helps determine government funding for homeless services. An estimated 14,000-18,000 homeless people live in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.
Lamika Harper of Detroit Central City Community Mental Health was part of a team of counters assigned to the Hamtramck area. This was her first homeless count.
Harper’s team members wore white T-shirts emblazoned with a yellow circle, a heart outlined in red and the words, “Every Person Counts,” to signify the team’s mission and to put the homeless people they would approach at ease.
Prior to heading out, team members gathered at the University of Detroit Mercy’s McNichols Campus for instructions about how to conduct the count safely and gather ample information. Counters asked basic questions of the homeless, such as their age and family status, as well as more detailed ones about whether they had been treated for substance abuse or been tested for HIV.
Along the way, counters passed out bottled water and personal hygiene packets as well as cards with the phone numbers of shelters and other service providers. The woman who was cleaning her shoes gladly accepted the items the counters provided and answered their questions.
Harper said providing deodorant, soap and shampoo makes a big difference for the homeless, who often don’t have ready access to things most people take for granted. The counters also provided feminine hygiene products to the women.
“You’re still a woman whether you’re homeless or not,” Harper explained.
Numbers from the count were not available.
