A Night Out, Counting the Homeless

Every two years the Homeless Coordinate Board count the amount of homeless people living in San Francisco. With the help of hundreds of volunteers they are able to count the homeless people living on the streets along with the amount of homeless in shelters, jail and hospitals. The number of homeless keep rising and has risen 3 percent from 2008 to 2009.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that a census be conducted every two years as a condition of receiving federal money under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This year, San Francisco received $18 million from HUD under the program.

Its great to see how many people come to volunteer to count the homeless so that the funds received by HUD can keep supporting organizations such as shelters. Its unfortunate to see the amount of people on the streets growing, but the economy must have an affect on this and with time hopefully we will start seeing decreasing numbers of homeless people.