‘Call to action’ by Homeless Leadership Coalition
In response to the generous allocation of $2,500 by the Deschutes County Commission towards the upcoming Point in Time Count, the Homeless Leadership Coalition is issuing a Call to Action for residents Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties.
The annual PIT Count is a count of people who are experiencing homelessness on a given night in January. Specifically, Wednesday January 25, 2017 is the point in time designated for the count. In order to accomplish this extremely important task, which drives HUD funding for rental assistance in the tri-county area, can only be accomplished with the aid and support of our entire community.
Deschutes County’s generous funding will add to the effort by way of purchasing needed items for the effort itself. In years past, incentives such as gift cards for a meal or goods have been acquired by the HLC to be given to those people who agree to take a brief survey regarding the circumstances surrounding their current episode of homelessness.
With that in mind…The Homeless Leadership Coalition issues the following Call to Action:
Donations of gift cards, goods and services, as well as monetary donations are much needed in order for volunteer teams to provide incentives to those community members experiencing homelessness during the PIT Count. These small incentives are often the difference between a person eating and/or staying warm, or going cold and hungry as they struggle to survive in the harsh High Desert winter.
During the 2015 PIT Count, more than 2,000 people, nearly half of whom were children, were experiencing homelessness on the night of the count effort. The HLC anticipates that number to hold steady, or even increase this January. Support in the form of donations, as well as volunteers for the PIT Count are desperately needed.
If you are interested in joining the fight against homelessness and poverty by donating and/or volunteering, please contact Hope Browning of NeighborImpact at 541-323-6576 or by email at hopeb@neighborimpact.org
The next HLC meeting, which is open to interested individuals, agencies and organizations will take place on Friday, December 2, at 8 a.m. at the downtown Bend branch of the Deschutes Public Library.
