Team visits Schuylkill County organizations during annual Point in Time Count

Jan. 26—Volunteers across Schuylkill County embarked on a comprehensive count of the homeless Wednesday and Thursday.

Members of various organizations provided assistance, distributed resource bags and ventured into the community for the Point in Time Count, a yearly tally of people experiencing homelessness on a given night.

The count, coordinated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has been conducted in Schuylkill County for about 10 years.

The initiative involved 11 community sites, where volunteers received visitors and asked where they had slept the night before. Shelter and resources were provided for individuals who did not list a location. If they needed emergency housing, they received a voucher for a motel room.

Also as part of the initiative, three street outreach teams went into the community to conduct the count and spread the word.

Thursday morning, two employees of Schuylkill County Mental Health and Drug & Alcohol Services — Amy Schlegel, case manager, and Brittany Culbert, prevention specialist — went to libraries, laundromats and other establishments in northern Schuylkill County.

They visited facilities such as the Crossfire Youth Ministries in Ashland, the Main Street Laundromat in Shenandoah and the Frackville Free Public Library, speaking to employees about their mission and dropping off resource bags.

Near the end of their travels, the team encountered and identified two homeless people in Shenandoah.

One of the two men, Schlegel said, was identified as unsheltered, or living in a place not meant for human habitation.

"We met a gentleman who appeared to be in need," Schlegel said. "We stopped and talked to him, and he was indeed homeless. We did a survey, and we gave him a gift card and a resource bag."

The bags were stocked with scarves, first aid kits, gloves, toothpaste and other items, as well as pamphlets with information on housing and community services.

During the team's visit to Crossfire Youth Ministries, Randy Troup, of Ashland, accepted a bag on behalf of a homeless man who has been living with him temporarily.

Troup said the man is in need of sleeping arrangements, which he says are few and far between in the county.

"There are a lot of people out there who need help," Troup said.

Following the day team's trip, two other street teams visited various locales in central and southern Schuylkill County on Thursday night.

Those teams sought more remote locations not typically associated with habitation, including in the woods.

Help at shelter

Meanwhile, people came into Servants to All's My Father's House on South Centre Street in Pottsville on Thursday. There, volunteers greeted them and asked them about their housing status.

For those in need of emergency housing, volunteers conducted a survey and took their information, which will be referred to PA 211.

Jeannette Triano Sinn, executive director of Servants to All, said many of those people would likely be referred to her shelter, which is open to all people in Schuylkill County in need of emergency housing.

"After that, we get them placed in our program, and then we start working with them ongoing with case management and other supports," Triano Sinn said. "While they're here today, we can assist them with food, clothing, and we give them resource bags."

More than 100 volunteers took part in this year's Point in Time Count, covering virtually every part of the county through the street outreach teams and community sites.

Other facilities that participated included the Helping Hands Thrift Store in Ashland, God's Helping Hands in Orwigsburg and the American Legion Post 792 in Shenandoah.

"It's become so well-known in our area, and it continues to grow each year," Triano Sinn said. "We continue to identify more people each year with street outreach."

Last year, the street outreach teams identified 56 individuals, of whom 30 were unsheltered; 17 were sheltered; and 9 were in transitional housing.

Contact the writer: hlee@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6085