Organization taking count of Houston's homeless population

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Starting Wednesday, hundreds of volunteers will be out on the streets counting who is homeless in and around the Houston area.

The Coalition for the Homeless says volunteers will be out wearing neon yellow shirts and will start within the 610 Loop. Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties will all be accounted for.

From doing this over the years and being able to provide resources, officials with the coalition say they have seen the homeless population go from 8,000 people to 4,000 in just a few years.

Eva Thibaudeau, the Vice President of Programs says, “We dramatically changed the way that we address people's homelessness in 2012 and so we started housing people directly from the streets instead of asking them to go through extensive programs to get ready for housing. Instead we say housing is the intervention that helps end homelessness. Since 2012 when we did that we have housed over 14,000 people and we have reduced street homelessness andoverall homelessness by over 50 percent.”

The count will continue through January 24.