The number of homeless people in Baltimore County may be decreasing, but the percentage of them who are women and children has increased, according to a January census.
Volunteers and county officials found that 513 people had no place to stay on Jan. 28, and about a third of them -- 183 --were children, said Sandy Monck, Baltimore County's homeless services coordinator. Last year, about half of those surveyed were women and children. This year, the number was about 65 percent, she said.
Based on the results of the survey, Monck estimates there are another 300 homeless people who weren't counted that day, which was unusually warm and pleasant for January.
A census in January 2005 estimated there were 2,000 homeless people in Baltimore County.
"I don't want people to think homelessness is not a problem," Monck said. "It does look like what we're doing is working -- that we're reaching people."
From January 2005 to January 2006, about 5,000 homeless people were served by such county programs as child care, temporary and permanent housing and counseling, Monck said.
That count does not include people who were served by more than one program or who used services at different times in the year, she said.
As part of the 38-question survey last month, homeless people were asked their age, how many children they have, how much education they have and what factors contributed to their homelessness.
Among the survey findings:
Forty-eight percent were 41 to 55 years old; 34 percent were 23 to 40 years old.
Sixty-five percent of those surveyed have children. And of those with children living with them on the streets, 61 percent had two or more children.
More than 60 percent reported having a high school diploma, General Educational Development certificate or some college education.
Nearly 60 percent reported being homeless for the first time.
Thirty percent reported losing a job as a factor in their homelessness; 28 percent pointed to a family breakup; and 23 percent gave drug or alcohol abuse as causes of their homelessness.
Stu Hancock, program director of Prologue Homeless Outreach, a countywide nonprofit group, said the number of children without homes should be alarming to county residents.
"It means more problems. Stop and think about it in terms of schooling, health care, drug addictions and abuse."
Hancock said the census was only a partial glimpse at the numbers of homeless people. "The county is way too big to count all the homeless," he said. "In the city, it's a little easier because there's a tendency to congregate in certain areas."
To conduct the count, makeshift census centers were created at Young Parent Support Center in Essex, Calvary Baptist Church in Towson and Morningstar Baptist Church in Catonsville.
At the centers, homeless people were given food and McDonald's gift cards, and were able to talk to people who could connect them with services and programs such as job training or drug treatment.
More than 75 volunteers fanned out over the county, looking in fast-food restaurants, stopping at parks and scouring potential hangouts over an eight-hour period.
The group found evidence of several camp sites but no one at them, which might have been because of the warmer weather, Monck said.
The county also recruited several homeless and formerly homeless people to help with the survey. County police officers helped by going into wooded areas known to be frequented by the homeless, Monck said.
The January census was the second time that county officials had tried to count the number of people without homes, Monck said.
The questions were slightly different this year, but they are able to make some comparisons, she said.
Knowing more about the needs of the homeless allows county officials to tailor their programs and figure out how to direct the resources, Monck said.
Baltimore County has about 400 beds in 10 shelters for the homeless and victims of domestic violence. An 11th shelter is set to open this month at Salem United Methodist Church in the Woodlawn area, she said.
laura.barnhardt@baltsun.com
