CHARLESTON, W.Va. — City of Charleston officials are working with local organizations to collect data on homelessness in the area and turning it into more services for the population.
On Monday’s 580-LIVE on 580-WCHS, Matt Sutton, the Chief of Staff to Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said last Wednesday officials went out around at 5:30 a.m. and performed a count of the homeless.
He said around 25-30 people from the city, United Way and a couple of other organizations worked on the count.
“Essentially this gives us an idea of who is out there sleeping without a home, who is sleeping on the streets, have they been here before, have we seen them before, and can we connect them to services,” Sutton said.
Under the Goodwin administration, the city has created the position of a homeless outreach coordinator. Sutton said the city is working with the police department to offer services to those who need it.
“Now that we do have a homeless outreach coordinator, an addiction outreach coordinator but soon to have a mental outreach coordinator within the city, we are going to be able to go a better job working with the people to connect people with the services they need.
“That way we will be able to truly distinguish between the folks that are here who want some help and the people who are really here to cause some problems,” Sutton said.
Sutton said the city and other outreach organizations continue to plan on doing the data collection.
“It gives our social services groups and organizations the ability to see not only a number but the person, the individual themselves,” he said.
“Being able to go out and saying ‘we saw this person six months ago, we are seeing them again. How do we work with them?'”