Recently compiled information about the Charlottesville area's homeless is providing a clearer picture about what's happening on the streets of the community.
Various Charlottesville area nonprofits received help from 25 volunteers, who hit the streets earlier this year to interview the homeless. Their information is given to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is a major grant provider.
The findings of the Point-in-Time survey are available online by the Open Knowledge Collaborative (OKC).
The data shows that while some of the area's homeless live outside, a majority do not.
"Most homeless are actually sheltered with PACEM, or the Salvation Army, or another shelter organization," said James Quinn the executive director of OKC.
The data also shows the need for more preventative care for the area's homeless, and reveals that over 230 area children are identified as homeless.
"This will help inform people who the homeless people are as a population, but it will also help show people what the issues are. What the real issues are. It's not panhandling. It's largely health, it's access to services, it's children and families," said Quinn.
Quinn says that the data was put in a user-friendly, easy to understand format. He hopes people will access the online data to become more informed about the area's homeless.
"It can be used for new funding. It can be used for the development of new services or programs. It can be used to simply inform people what the status of our community is," Quinn said.
Click here to see the data.
