Stillwater homeless count needs community input

Mission of Hope is asking Stillwater residents to help identify locations where unsheltered individuals are staying ahead of the annual Point in Time Count, which begins Wednesday.

The organization has launched a community input form with a Wednesday noon deadline to help volunteers locate people experiencing homelessness throughout Stillwater and Payne County. The count affects future federal funding for homeless services.

"It's our goal to really find where unsheltered people are hanging out, where they are staying, loitering during the day, sleeping at night, so that they are counted, that they are represented in this count," said Ellen Ingram, a Mission of Hope board member.

The organization knows where some larger encampments are located but needs help finding individuals staying in vehicles and other less visible locations, Ingram said.

"We're trying to involve as many people as possible in this community count because people out in the community know where unsheltered individuals are staying," Ingram said. "We need their help to identify them and find them so that we can count them."

Community members can submit information through an online form at https://form.jotform.com/260153943118050. The form asks for general locations, the type of location, best time to visit, estimated number of individuals and any safety concerns. Respondents do not need to provide names or identifying details.

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Volunteers will conduct the first phase of the count Wednesday night, partnering with several churches and a police officer who works with encampments. The officer's involvement is solely to help identify camp locations, not for enforcement purposes, Ingram said.

Mission of Hope will host a lunch Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in partnership with Cardinals with Love to provide a warm meal and location for people to be counted. Volunteers will distribute blessing bags containing items to help those living outdoors stay warm and meet basic needs.

"We're doing this to increase funding so we can provide better, more effective services in the future," Ingram said.

The Point in Time Count is an annual nationwide effort required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to document the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single day.

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