Sacramento State’s Division of Social Work and Institute for Social Research partnered with Sacramento Steps Forward to conduct the biennial Homeless Point-in-Time Count Wednesday and Thursday.

The Homeless Point-in-Time Count is an attempt to gather information on the homeless population in Sacramento County. It is a county-wide census of people experiencing homelessness that is required by federal law.

The biennial Homeless Point-in-Time (PIT) Count has 1,000 volunteers, a quarter of which are Sac State students, according to the Sac State’s Division of Social Work. The data collected Wednesday and Thursday night will inform policy and funding decisions over the next two years to combat homelessness.

The Homeless PIT Count is required by federal law to be conducted every two years and is led by Sacramento Steps Forward.

The 2017 homeless count found the total amount of homelessness in Sacramento increased by 30 percent since 2015. Sacramento Steps Forward also found that people living outdoors on the street, in tents, cars or RVs increased by 85 percent.

Volunteers gathered at Sac State’s Downtown campus on S Street and at the Department of Human Assistance to get their deployment locations. The teams were tasked with scouting their locations for homeless individuals or groups to count and interview them.

“Through these interviews, homeless individuals will be answering questions such as how they become homeless, if they were Sacramento residents previously and other questions to provide better services and support for the homelessness,” said Arturo Baiocchi, assistant professor of the Division of Social Work at Sac State.

Each group of volunteers had an assigned individual as a lead, interviewer and an assigned counter. Groups had to log their information on their smartphone through an app.

Groups consisted generally of four to five individuals and they all received a specific area around Sacramento County to scout for homeless individuals.

“Specific locations are assigned to each team because they are known to be homeless hotspots that are provided by the Sacramento Police Department,” said Angela Marin, Sac State alumna who was the leader of her scouting team for the count.

Marin and her team were assigned the McClellan area and got sent to their location at 6:30 p.m. Their task was to scout on foot the specified area on the map that was given to them.

Melissa Montes, a Sac State graduate social work student, learned about the count from her capstone adviser Susanna Curry.

“Our capstone project’s focus is on homelessness so Dr. Curry wanted us to participate in the count to see how estimations for the number of people experiencing [being] homeless are determined,” Montes said.

“During the count, I worked as an interviewer and I really enjoyed the experience,” Montes said. “I have limited experience in working with people who are experiencing homelessness, so to be able to get their perspective on homeless was invaluable.”