New Bedford Homeless Count

New Bedford's Annual Homeless Count will be taking place on Wednesday afternoon over at the PAACA headquarters parking lot at 360 Coggeshall St.

George Bailey, of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, tells WBSM's Brian Thomas that previous attempts to count the homeless population were difficult as they could be found in many different areas and it was concluded that a simpler way was needed.

"It was more of an idea to get them together, congregated say in the Salvation Army area, so that we could on a given day....see what we could do to get them in one place where we could get alot of information at that time," said Bailey.

Bailey also says they have been working with the Homeless Servive Providers Network to get the word out to make sure that as many homeless as possible are aware of when and where the count will be taking place.

"We were working in conjunction with HSPN this year to make fliers that we were putting in our bags everyday that we go out," said Bailey "the PAACA building has been the overflow shelter this year for the homeless so they have been there and have also been told that this point-in time count is going to take place."

"So there's been an awful lot more advertising this year, so we're hoping to get them all together."
The count will begin at 2 p.m. and information gathered from the count will be used to try and secure federal funding to help the local homeless population.