March 30, 2005
Contact: Sue Baker
For Immediate Release
738-2000
City’s Interagency Council on Homelessness surveys
meant to gauge severity of problem in Warwick
WARWICK - Mayor Scott Avedisian announced today that the city’s Family Support and Human Services Department, on behalf of the Warwick Interagency Council on Homelessness, has mailed surveys meant to provide a clearer picture of homelessness in the city.
Approximately 85 surveys were mailed earlier this week to non-profit agencies, schools, walk-in health clinics, pediatricians’ offices and other groups that may have contact with families or individuals in transition. Participants are asked to fill out the surveys on April 4, 5, and 6 in order to provide the council with a three-day snapshot of issues related to homelessness.
Participating agencies are asked to identify what type of programs they offer - transitional housing, emergency shelter services, outreach, medical/healthcare for the homeless, soup kitchen/food pantry or other services - and to identify the number of homeless participants accessing services on a particular day.
In order to ensure that the same individuals are not being counted twice, they will be identified by the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, or may choose to give their first name, said Family Support and Human Services Director Maureen Volpe, who is also a member of the Council on Homelessness. The survey also asks the number of adults and children in families, number of individuals and how many individuals and persons in a family are unsheltered.
The survey also asks participants to give the location of where they stayed the night before, whether at an emergency shelter, with friends/family, in transitional or permanent housing or if they were unsheltered.
“We are hopeful that these surveys will provide us with a figure of the actual number of homeless people currently in Warwick,” Volpe said.
Avedisian established the council by executive order last year, recognizing that the City of Warwick shares the mission of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to end homelessness within the next 10 years. The five-member council is charged with helping the city “in its efforts to develop and implement an action-oriented, performance based plan to end homelessness through collaboration with local businesses, faith and community based organizations, educational institutions, charitable agencies and other groups,” Avedisian said.
Council members include Volpe, Ward Six City Councilwoman Donna Travis, Richard Walton, a member of the board of the RI Coalition for the Homeless, Janis Fisher, Executive Director of the RI Family Shelter, Tony Andreozzi, a member of the St. Vincent DePaul Society, and Jay Burdick, from the Rhode Island Dept of Human Services.