LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington is preparing to conduct its annual count of people experiencing homelessness in the city, an initiative that takes place every year in late January to track the scope of a growing crisis.
The LexCount, scheduled for January 28, will involve about 250 volunteers who will visit outdoor locations and complete surveys with those identified without shelter across Fayette County. They will also facilitate access to emergency shelters and distribute care packages. Requests can be made by teams to be joined by a Lexington Police Department officer in the field during the count.
"That is an annual count of persons that are experiencing homelessness residing in emergency shelter, transitional housing dedicated to the homeless or in sheltered locations," said Jeff Herron, Lexington's homelessness prevention manager.
The count comes as the city continues to see increases in homelessness year after year. Lexington's last point-in-time count revealed 925 people are homeless or unhoused in the city.
"We continue to see at least nominal increases year after year," Herron said.
Herron said the goal is to address the city's increase in homelessness and return to positive progress seen before the pandemic.
"We really want to be able to return to some of the positive progress that we were seeing prior to the pandemic and get those numbers back down," Herron said.
Volunteer teams will consist of no more than four people, with the attempt to cover the entire geography of Fayette County.
"Our attempt is to cover the entire geography of Fayette County," Herron said.
In a study commissioned by Lexington, EHI Consultants looked for feedback outside of Fayette County, including tracking success stories from homelessness prevention advocates in Houston, Texas, and Hennepin County, Minnesota.
"There's many places that we're looking at and even places that maybe haven't had success that's made national news," Herron said.
For now, making strides from last year is the goal, with accurate information being key to addressing the growing crisis.
"Knowing where we are is valuable," Herron said.
The Lex End Homelessness Continuum of Care is seeking volunteers for LexCount. People can sign up at lexendhomelessness.com.
