A street count of homeless individuals will be conducted on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, as part of the 2013 Point-In-Time Count coordinated by Tennessee Valley Coalition to End Homelessness. The Point-In-Time Count is a survey of homeless persons in every county across the United States. Due to separate funding applications from the federal government, there are ten Continuums of Care (CoCs) across the state. Locally the CoC will survey the homeless in Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Loudon, Monroe, Sevier, and Union Counties.

During last year's count, 777 homeless individuals were counted in this 12- county region.  Unfortunately, homeless persons use a variety of public systems in inefficient and costly ways. While it may not be obvious, the chronically homeless create significant costs to local service programs.  A recent study conducted in Knoxville showed that a chronically homeless person used approximately $37,000 in services per year.  

For more details, please see the Tuesday edition of the Newport Plain Talk.