By Khalida Sarwari
Volunteers headed out early this morning to survey Santa Clara County’s homeless population as part of an effort to combat chronic homelessness.
The Housing 1000 campaign aims to end homelessness in Santa Clara County, with an immediate goal of moving 1,000 homeless people into permanent housing by 2013.
Hundreds of volunteers are taking part in the survey, which began this morning and will continue through Wednesday.
Every morning before dawn, the trained volunteers go to areas where the homeless are known to congregate, on the streets or in encampments, and gather information about their health and history of homelessness.
The data will be used to better understand local homelessness and create a registry of those who are in most need of housing and medical care, among other services.
The survey will be conducted in every city in the county except Gilroy and Morgan Hill. A separate survey will be done in those cities on July 20 and 21.
Anyone who is interested in volunteering is asked to visit www.housing1000sv.org or call Rebecca Garcia at (408) 975-4452.