Video: Homeless Count Begins in Northeast Mississippi

[syndicaster id=’5576015′]

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — Local organizations are trying to get an accurate account of how many homeless people there are in our area. It’s all a part of a project to reduce homelessness in Northeast Mississippi.

Starting at midnight Sunday night, volunteers went out into the community to take an official account of the local homeless population.
A coalition of churches in Columbus have already begun to help those who don’t have a home to call their own.

“Some of them are not homeless in the sense that they are sleeping under bridges. They are homeless in the sense that they have no where to live but they may be sleeping on a mattress in a family’s house, or in a garage, or in a car,” says Reverend Anne Harris, St. Paul Episcopal.

Harris says the group has long-term plans for a shelter in Columbus that would assist people like Morgan Putt who is in jeopardy of losing her housing.

“You have to a job to get day care assistance. So how am I going to have anybody watch my kids to get that daycare assistance to get that job,” says Morgan Putt, who’s been struggling for five years to provide a stable home for her children.

Vickie Bankhead says she has trouble finding employment in the area, making it difficult to keep a roof over head.

“My challenge right now is that I can’t get help to get a place to stay because I have no income and the City, they have no homeless shelter or no funds to really help,” says Bankhead.

A survey will be distributed throughout Northeast Mississippi including Tupelo, Columbus, West Point, Corinth and Iuka. The survey will be taken for a 24-hour period, ending midnight on Tuesday. Results will be sent to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development which will provide resources to combat the issues that lead to homelessness.

“We would like to provide a permanent shelter where we would also work with folks to provide services: health, education, budget advice and so on, that would help get them back into society,” says Harris.

Harris says there are currently 500 families on a waiting list with the State Housing Authority.

The survey project is sponsored by Mississippi United to End Homelessness.