2017 Point-in-Time Homeless Count is planned for Wednesday, January 25

Each year at the end of January, the Lakeshore Housing Alliance (LHA), a program of Greater Ottawa County United Way, conducts a census of persons experiencing homelessness in Ottawa County. Our community will be conducting this count on Wednesday, January 25. As stipulated in the HEARTH/McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, this Point-in-Time Count allows us to secure funding from HUD Continuum of Care and the Emergency Solutions Grant programs. The information we gather helps to identify gaps in services and allows housing service providers to make determinations about the program improvement and where to target new resources.

In order to accurately capture this snapshot of homelessness in our community, teams of volunteers in Holland, Grand Haven and Allendale will spread out across the county to identify people living unsheltered. Also included in the count are those persons living in emergency shelter and transitional housing. To learn more, contact Lyn Raymond at lraymond@ottawaunitedway.org.