LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Central Kentucky Housing and Homeless Initiative, Catholic Action Center, and Street Voice Council are all out around Lexington, working to get accurate numbers of the city’s homeless population.
CAC co-founder and director Ginny Ramsey says, "We want to be prepared for the winter. We need to have a more, a broader way of counting the folks."
Ramsey explains that the Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn't always account for every person experiencing homelessness — including people in jail, programs, hospitals, and even children.
Ramsey says, "The last one we'd done was about 1,600, 1,800 people. Then when they took over and had to narrow it, it went down to maybe 700. So, the difference, we know there's a difference, they know there's a difference."
There are more than 40 volunteers around the city collecting data. Christopher Lunsford is one of the surveyors with CAC. He explains, "We're not gathering their names, we're just gathering their race and their age, if they were veterans, how they become homeless, what got them in the situation that they are in at this moment, and where they stayed last night."
Lunsford has been doing this work for nearly a decade. He's experienced trauma in his own past. He keeps doing this work because he feels called to.
He says, "God never shamed me for the things that I’ve done. He always loved me and that's what he expects us to do. So what right do we as citizens have to shame the people that are having a little struggle?"
Ramsey says it's important to remember this winter that these people are our brothers and sisters.
"We're the most compassionate community you could ever find. And people don't like to see folks suffering, in the cold, they don't like to see them suffering in the heat, and they know there's a problem and we need to have some ideas of how to address it."
These groups are working to make sure everyone knows they matter. CAC says the final report will be shared by mid-September.
