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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness (ARCH) has wrapped up its yearly point-in-time (PIT) count, assessing the number of homeless individuals across the eight-county area it serves.
This year’s survey identified 927 individuals either without shelter or residing in transitional housing or emergency shelters.
Terry Burdett from ARCH noted that this year’s count closely mirrors that of last year. He attributes this consistency to the method used in conducting the survey.
“The fact that the numbers remain steady suggests we’ve reached a plateau in our counting approach,” Burdett explained.
Burdett also highlighted that the collected data is instrumental in monitoring trends among specific groups, such as the elderly.
“Our senior citizens, which is a population we try to keep an eye on because they are always on a fixed income. And so when these rents greatly increase, we found that they were becoming homeless because of economic rent issues, not because of things like disabilities.”
The data from PIT counts can be found on the organization’s website.