Forty-two Coastal Carolina University students have volunteered to help count the local homeless population for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from Wednesday, Jan. 25, through Monday, Jan. 30. The Point-In-Time (PIT) count, taken every year in January, helps to identify needs and allocate federal resources.

The students, mostly from CCU's social inequality and race and ethnicity classes, will visit 12 different shelters and places where the homeless gather, according to Stephanie Southworth, Ph.D., lecturer of sociology at CCU, who is also HUD's county coordinator for Horry County.

"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, the students are also spending time volunteering in the shelters this semester."

"The PIT count is an important factor that HUD uses to determine the level of funding needed to help the homeless, and it also helps to measure what progress is being made to address this national issue," according to echomeless.org.

"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 the student volunteers, we will have a good count this year."

Public awareness and volunteer participation are crucial for a successful outcome, according to the Eastern Carolina Homelessness Organization (ECHO) website. Volunteers are essential to locate the homeless who have not been counted by outreach workers and homeless organizations.

"This year Coastal Carolina University has provided tremendous support to ECHO on this project from significant volunteer efforts from the students and the planning/coordination efforts provided by our Horry county PIT coordinator, Dr. Southworth," said Kyle Jenkins, ECHO program administrator. "It truly takes the entire community to come together around issues like homelessness, and our partnership with CCU is a great example of this community starting to come together on this important issue."

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