By Fox23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — The effort to count the number of people and families in Tulsa who are currently struggling with homelessness continued on Friday morning. It’s part of the annual Point In Time (PIT) count.
It’s required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for any communities that get funding for homelessness services.
It’s usually scheduled during the last ten days of January to coincide with the coldest weather of the year in the hope that the numbers will be more accurate because more people will be in shelters to stay safe.
Volunteers counted people sleeping in shelters on Thursday night and hit the streets to count people sleeping outside on Friday morning.
“We do an assessment, we learn a little bit more about their experiences, their needs, and that gives us a snapshot in time on the same day, every year, of how many people are experiencing homelessness on a given night,” said Mark Smith, CEO of Housing Solutions.
Local outreach teams say they’re still trying to locate a large number of people who were moved during Operation SAFE last year, so this year’s count may not be accurate.
Last year, they counted nearly 1,500 people experiencing homelessness across Tulsa County.
