Thunder Bay homeless to be counted this weekend

Superior Morning6:46Homeless Survey

There's a special kind of census taking place in Thunder Bay this weekend. Community organizations plan to count the city's homeless. Bonnie Krysowaty of the Lakehead Social Planning Council explains

Volunteers will be out in force in Thunder Bay, Ont., this weekend counting the city's homeless.

The goal is to make sure there are programs and services to meet homeless people's needs, said Bonnie Krysowaty, a social researcher with the Lakehead Social Planning Council, which is co-organizing the count with the Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre.

Shelter House and the Indian Friendship Centre will be serving food and inviting homeless people to getcounted, Krysowatysaid.

A mobile unit will also tour the city meeting people at locations such assoup vans, she added.

"We are pretty confident about where the homeless individuals are staying the night of the point-in-time count ...and we're very confident that we'll get quite an accurate number for our city," Krysowaty told CBC.

Initiative aimed at housing homeless

This weekend's count is the first homeless count to take place in Thunder Bay.

It's part of a nation-wide count initiated by the federal government.

Several major cities have opted not to participate in the national initiative, raising concerns that the data won't paint a complete picture of homelessness Canada-wide, but Krysowatysaid she's focussed on the positive impact locally.

"I think for Thunder Bay this is just such a great opportunity. If we don't get comparative results with other large large cities, then we don't have that data," she said. "I don't know how much data from Toronto would actually help Thunder Bay."

In addition to completing the point-in-time count a snapshot of the city's homelesspopulation during a given time period the organizersandvolunteers will also try to registerhomeless people for the 20,000Homes Campaign,an initiative aimed at finding them housing,Krysowatysaid.

The homeless count kicks off Saturday at 6 p.m. and runs until 6 p.m. Sunday.