On the coldest night each year, volunteers across the United States brave frigid temperatures in search of people living in them. Known as the Point in Time [PIT] count, it’s both a federal data collection opportunity on homelessness and a way to help a community’s often most vulnerable members.
Liam Wheeler is coordinating this year's count for 11 counties in Central Illinois, including McLean. He noted that this marks the first year all counties within the Central Illinois Continuum of Care [CICoC] are participating.
“We are going to walk the streets, and we are trying to find individuals who [are] struggling with homelessness, and asking them if they're willing to participate in sharing their demographic data,” said Wheeler, also the area’s CoC coordinator through the McLean County Center for Human Services [MCCHS], which leads the CICoC.
“It allows us to be more aware of where people are living and habituating,” he said, adding that if someone in a newly participating county has never made contact with the CoC before, they might get their “first chance to say, ‘Hey, someone is looking for me.’”
The Continuum of Care is a federal program designed to end homelessness, with regional divisions throughout the country, each responsible for conducting PIT counts.
“Someone is out there hurting, and it's our job to go and find them,” Wheeler said of volunteers in the PIT count.
Since it’s many Central Illinois counties’ first year of participation, Wheeler said there’s a high need for such volunteers. He encourages anyone interested in helping to reach out to him or MCCHS.
Wheeler added that he knows firsthand the importance of connecting people to services. Formerly unhoused himself, he said he used to sit outside homeless assistance organizations, unable to go in.
“I was so overwhelmed with substance abuse and complex PTSD that instead of walking into a building where I needed help, I would sit there for hours,” he explained. “That’s not rational… but I was so wounded that I couldn’t walk into the place that I needed help from.”
It was easier to hope someone from the organization or even a passing stranger would come to him.
This year, the PIT count will also span a full week. After volunteers go out on Jan. 30, Wheeler said organizations including school and human services offices will pick up from there, registering everyone who comes into their facility for homeless assistance as part of the county.
The goal, Wheeler said, is to hopefully create a fuller picture of each village, township, city and county’s needs. Data collected will be used to make funding requests for CoC grants and other programs geared toward finding shelter and housing solutions.
