PORT ANGELES – Volunteers and staff of agencies that combat homelessness fanned out across Clallam County on Thursday for the annual Point in Time census of homeless people.
Serenity House residents combed downtown Port Angeles on foot while a trio of volunteers checked outlying areas thought to harbor tent camps.
They also prepared and served free meals at several places, hoping to count the homeless as they came for food.
Meals were served at the Horizon Center, 205 E. Fifth St.; the Street Outreach Center, 535 E. First St.; and Clallam Transit System’s Oak Street transfer station at Oak and Front streets in Port Angeles and its Sequim Transit Center at 190 W. Cedar St.
The Horizon Center is run by the Peninsula Community Mental Health Center for clients who can benefit from programs at the facility.
The Street Outreach Center shelters as many as 18 people a night.
It is a program of Serenity House, which uses it to direct homeless adults to transitional and, it hopes, permanent housing programs.
Partial preliminary results of the census will be available by Feb. 1, but the full census with breakouts by gender, age and location probably will not be finished until early spring.
