In Sheboygan County, members of the Housing Coalition — Safe Harbor, Salvation Army, Sheboygan County Interfaith Organization, Lakeshore Community Action Program (CAP), Sheboygan Housing Authority, Legal Action of Wisconsin, Lutheran Social Services, Sheboygan Area School District and United Way — meet on a regular basis collaborating to address housing issues, including ways to begin addressing homelessness. One of the tasks undertaken by the Housing Coalition is the twice annual Point-In Time Street Count. Communities throughout the United Sates conduct the PIT in January and July to gather information on homeless individuals.
Information gathered from the PIT is crucial to the Housing Coalition and United Way in a number of ways:
• It helps agencies from the federal, state and local governmental agencies working with the homeless populations get a better understanding of homelessness in their communities.
• It influences the funds given to communities to support programs and services for individuals who are homeless.
• It helps provide those who are identified as homeless on the night of the count with resources and support.
The Housing Coalition needs YOUR HELP! Volunteers are needed for the night of January 29th into the morning hours of January 30 to look for homeless people from
The volunteer shift runs from 11:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m. The goal is to cover the entire county, which means about 35 volunteers are needed to cover Sheboygan, Plymouth, Elkhart Lake, Glenbeulah, Greenbush, Waldo, Cascade, Random Lake, Oostburg, Gibbsville, Cedar Grove, Sheboygan Falls and Kohler.
Teams of volunteers can sign up together or as individuals who will be placed with a team. Adults over the age of 18 are needed who can get out on foot and look for those who are homeless in places they may be staying. Each team also needs one volunteer driver (with a valid driver’s license and car insurance) to drive the team to various locations within their ‘zone.’ A training session will be provided at Salvation Army at 5:30 p.m. Monday, January 27th .
