More than 600 volunteers sought for Las Vegas Valley homeless census

Volunteers are needed to help count unsheltered homeless individuals in the Las Vegas Valley on Jan. 29 for the 2020 Southern Nevada Homeless Census.

The point-in-time count offers insight into homelessness and is required to qualify for federal grant funding, which gives more than $13 million yearly to local groups providing homeless services and programs, Clark County officials said.

Volunteers will be asked to work at least one shift of four hours; the earliest will start at 4 a.m. and the latest will start at 1 p.m. During a shift, volunteers will work with groups of three or more, walking or driving through assigned areas to count the homeless and conduct short surveys of any homeless individual willing to be interviewed.

Organizers are seeking more than 600 volunteers this year and hope that holding the count entirely during the day will boost volunteer turnout. Prior counts have largely been performed during overnight hours, which has also made it difficult to conduct interviews.

Anyone interested in volunteering should visit HelpHopeHome.org/volunteer.

Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.