CCU students assist HUD in counting local homeless population

Around 50 Coastal Carolina University students volunteered to help the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) count the local homeless population from Wednesday, Jan. 25, to Monday, Jan. 30.

The students were mostly from CCU’s social inequality and race and ethnicity classes. They visited 12 different shelters and places where the homeless gather, according to Stephanie Southworth, Ph.D., lecturer of sociology at CCU, and the HUD coordinator for Horry County.

The Point-In-Time (PIT) count helps identify needs for the allocation of federal resources. HUD uses the PIT count to determine the level of funding needed to help the homeless and to measure what progress is being made to address this national issue.

“Every county in the state conducts a PIT count, and most have trouble finding enough people to volunteer,” said Southworth. “In addition to participating in the count, some of the students are also spending time volunteering in the shelters this semester.”

Volunteer participation is crucial for a successful PIT count, according to the Eastern Carolina Homeless Organization (ECHO) website. Volunteers are essential to locate the homeless who have not been counted by outreach workers and homeless organizations.

“We are going to local shelters, parks, libraries, soup kitchens and anywhere else the homeless might be,” said Southworth. “The more homeless we count, the more resources HUD will provide. In the past, the homeless have been vastly undercounted. Hopefully, with all of the student volunteers, we will have a good count this year.”

Hailey Minten, freshman sociology major from Ashland, Wis., was one of the volunteers.

“The main thing that I took from this PIT count is that you never know their story,” Minten says, “Never judge a book by its cover. Over the three days of surveys, my life seems to be a lot better than some people have it, and I should never take that for granted.”

ECHO is a regional nonprofit program that assists the homeless with resources such as housing. It covers 12 counties: Horry, Sumter, Florence, Georgetown, Chesterfield, Malboro, Darlington, Clarendon, Dillon, Lee, Williamsburg and Marion.