Upcoming Homeless Count Seeking Volunteers

Sonoma County is recruiting volunteers to help with its biennial homeless count, scheduled for January 28. The count is required by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which gives Sonoma County $2.5 million a year for homeless services. (Sign up here.)

Petaluma and four other cities will deploy groups of volunteers, each led by a homeless guide to find people without shelter. They will search homeless encampments, people sleeping in cars (people will not be disturbed) and check in with the shelters.

The goal? To assess the needs of the county, one census tract at a time, and create better programs and services, said Jenny Abramson, a consultant hired by Sonoma County to head up the effort.

"Getting an exact number of homeless is very difficult because people move around," Abramson said. But "we will canvas all public space, we will walk every street and drive every road that day to do our assessment."

The 2009 count found 3,247 people without shelter in Sonoma County, although year around estimates are nearly 8,000, Abramson said. Since then, the number of homeless people has been increasing, including a 10 percent increase in shelters in 2010, while the number of beds has remained the same, she said.

John Records, executive director of COTS Committee on the Shelterless says the spike is largely due to the recession.

"We have been seeing an increase in people saying that loss of income is the cause of being homeless, and I believe that is directly related to the economy," Records said.