Homeless advocates in Bethesda are hoping the results of a recently-conducted survey of people on the street can bring change to the way the county houses its neediest residents.

Coordinated by Bethesda Cares, a homeless outreach group based on Woodmont Avenue, the registry was taken from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, and was designed to create a database of those living on the street. The survey includes details such as health issues they face, drug abuse concerns and military veteran status. Volunteers surveyed 40 homeless people over the three days for the database.

Bethesda Cares hopes to use this data to help get some of the area’s most vulnerable — identified as those older than 60 or living with serious health issues such as cancer or diabetes — off the street faster.

“You have to know your market, who you’re trying to help,” said Susan Kirk, executive director of Bethesda Cares. “Now, we can do some different kind of thinking.”

Those who operate housing programs in the county say there are more than just administrative barriers to getting people off the street.

The number of people living on the street in Montgomery County has increased, according to the annual Point in Time count, performed by nonprofits at the beginning of each year. This year, there were 226 people found living unsheltered on the street, up from 181 in 2010 and 127 in 2009.

Kirk said the data will help her group better connect homeless to the resources available to them, such as housing vouchers, medicare assistance or energy assistance. The database could supplement the current process for applying for housing assistance, which includes a 20-page intake form that can take up to two hours to complete.

County Councilman and Chair of the county’s Health and Human Services Committee George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park praised the effort. He said the county’s Department of Health and Human Services does little outreach to the county’s homeless population, relying instead on those living on the street to come to them.

“For years it’s been the case; we’ve been too busy with intake to do outreach,” he said.

In recent years, Montgomery County has focused on providing homeless families with housing through its Housing Initiative Program, which currently houses about 65 families, said Nadim Khan, chief of the county’s Special Needs Housing Program, part of the Department of Housing and Human Services. He said the largest resource for housing homeless in the county are the 5,946 housing vouchers, rent and mortage assistance funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

These vouchers are administrated through the Housing Opportunities Commission and distributed via lottery to those on its waiting list, which is about 1,700 people long, said HOC spokesman Scott Ellinwood. There is a roughly 6 percent turnover rate for these vouchers.

Ellinwood said even with more data, his group cannot target specific people for housing assistance. He said federal law requires HUD funding to be distributed through lottery.

Leventhal said he hopes the survey can help curb the rise in unsheltered homeless in Montgomery County and plans to meet with HOC officials to determine if it can be used to target some of the most vulnerable.

“I think it could be useful, but what we can do with it is something I’m not sure of yet,” he said.

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