Counting on helping the homeless

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Next month, the City of Hamilton will take part in a project that is the first of its kind across the country. The project called “a point in time” is aimed at collecting data about the city’s homeless.

On February 21st & 22nd volunteers in 30 communities across the country will set out to count the number of homeless in their area.

“In order to solve that problem, we need to understand the scale of the problem and the types of services and supports that are needed in our community.” Amanda Difalco, managaer with housing services in Hamilton.

In April of last year Hamilton took part in a pilot project to count the homeless in the downtown core where they both counted and surveyed 470 people.

In terms of health, they found that 82% of people surveyed reported having a mental health condition. 73% reported drug or alcohol use and 60% suffered from a chronic health condition.