VALDOSTA — The 2018 Georgia Homeless Count will be conducted this week. 

The Region 11 counties participating in the count are Lowndes County, Echols County and Brooks County, said Mary Brown Sandys, director of marketing and communications for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. She said the count takes place the night of Monday, Jan. 22. 

The Region 10 count will include Terrell County, Miller County and Colquitt County and commences Jan. 23-29, according to a Southwest Georgia Regional Commission press release.

The DCA’s Region 10 consists of 14 counties: Baker, Calhoun, Colquitt, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Lee, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas and Worth. 

The DCA’s Region 11 consists of 18 counties: Lowndes, Turner, Tift, Brooks, Cook, Echols, Lanier, Berrien, Irwin, Ben Hill, Coffee, Atkinson, Clinch, Ware, Bacon, Pierce, Brantley, and Charlton. 

“Counties volunteer to be part of the count, and this year only counties who had participated in the count before will participate because we are piloting a new mobile app for data collection,” Sandys said in an email. “This year, we are not required to submit unsheltered homeless counts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, so we’re using this year as an opportunity to make a few changes and try some new things aimed at streamlining the PIT (point in time) count process.”

Kimberly Brooks, planner and regional count coordinator with the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission, said the count will be conducted electronically. She said the Georgia DCA is partnering with the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission for the homeless count. 

A Point in Time app is used for the count, according to the release. 

According to the DCA’s 2017 Report on Homelessness, after covering 152 counties in Georgia, 3,716 homeless persons were identified, which includes both sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals.

For 2017, Lowndes identified 72 homeless persons, 67 who were sheltered by emergency shelters or transitional housing and five who were not, according to the report. For Colquitt in 2017, there were 16 homeless people identified, all of whom were sheltered homeless people. 

Lowndes identified two unsheltered veterans and two imminently homeless persons, the report showed, and Colquitt identified one imminently homeless person. 

The 2017 report showed Brooks County identified no homeless people but had 28 imminently homeless identified.

The DCA defined imminently homeless as those “who are facing loss of housing within two weeks, have no subsequent residence identified and lack the resources or support networks needed to obtain other permanent housing.”

According to last year’s report, Echols had no homeless people or imminently homeless persons identified.  

People who reside in a place not meant for human habitation, which includes cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings or encampments, will be included in the count, according to the release. 

Visit dca.ga.gov/HousingGateway/Home/HlSelect to view resources for the homeless.

Kimberly Cannon is a Reporter with The Valdosta Daily Times. Her extension is 1376.