Abby Morris and two dozen volunteers are searching out southern Montgomery County’s homeless in the hope of finding who needs their help the most.
These volunteers, organized by Bethesda Cares, a homeless outreach service located on Woodmont Avenue, are surveying the homeless in and around Bethesda for a new database, designed to better coordinate the distribution of housing services toward those who are most likely to die on the street.
Morris did not search Friendship Heights long to find Andrew J. Brown, 56, lying on a bench in a heap of blankets outside the Metrorail station.
Brown said he has lived on the street for 30 years, often in and out of shelters, and takes medications for liver damage.
Morris, also the medical director for Threshold Services — a recovery clinic in Silver Spring and Rockville for substance abusers and the mentally ill — took it all down. She noted where he sleeps and took his photo so he can be found again. She gave him clean socks, a bag of trail mix and the phone number for a homeless-services center.
“If he is a vet, then we know to let [the Department of Veterans Affairs] that he’s out there,” she said. “They might be able to help him.”
Morris and her team of six volunteers surveyed about a dozen homeless they found sleeping on the streets early Monday. Bethesda Cares says it will try to add every homeless person it services to the database. Many, despite often suffering from mental or physical disabilities, were forthcoming with their personal information, as the volunteers told them it came with a chance to get off the street.
The survey and the database are part of the 100,000 Homes campaign, a national model for addressing homelessness being adopted and propagated by Bethesda Cares.
The population of people living on the street in Montgomery County has been fluctuating over the past four year without dropping. This year, the county saw an increase in that population, up to 1,132 from 1,064 last year, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government — a collection of public agencies from around Washington, D.C. That figure is down by about 1 percent since 2007, when there were 1,139 literally homeless counted in Montgomery County. Roughly 1.2 percent of the county’s population is considered homeless.
Washington, D.C., has the largest population of homeless in the area, at 6,546 people, a four-year high.
The goal of the survey is to create a searchable, electronic index of those living on the street to better determine who needs mental-health care, medical services, or can be eligible for programs, like federal veterans housing, said 100,000 Homes spokesman Jake Maquire. This database is used to match people on the street with resources, mainly a free or reduced-cost place to live, he said.
“We’ve found that you can house people far quicker this way than by trying to give them services as they show up to your door,” he said.
Since it began in July 2010, the program has helped take nearly 20,000 nationwide off the street, according to the 100,000 Homes annual report, released July 21.
No homeless management information system is in place in Montgomery County, according to the coalition report. Homeless in Montgomery County are typically counted and tracked by case workers from homeless service groups such as Bethesda Cares or Catholic Charities.
Bethesda Cares Outreach Social Worker John Mendez said he hopes to use the database to determine who is the most at-need for resources; people living on the street with HIV or AIDS, substance abuse problems, or those age 60 or older.
“These are the people most likely to die on the street, who need our help right now,” he said.
The information will be compiled this week, he said.
The next step, Mendez said, is sharing this information and the database. Bethesda Cares meets monthly with other homeless service providers such as Catholic Charities, the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, and others. He said he hopes to expand the model beyond Bethesda by introducing it to other organizations in hopes it will take hold across Montgomery County.
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