Homelessness is a problem felt everywhere, and Tuesday a group of people attempted to put a number on the issue, unofficially finding 160 homeless people in Warren County.

Mountain of Faith Ministry, 1529 Walnut St., in conjunction with the Warren County Continuum of Care conducted their annual Point in Time count of the homeless population in Warren County.

Every year PIT counts are conducted across the nation during the last week of January. Groups locate people who are homeless and give them a 10-minute questionnaire about their experiences.

The main question is, “Where did you sleep Sunday night?”

“If it wasn’t in their own house where they are paying bills, they are homeless,” said Tina Hayward, executive director and founder of MOFM. “Even if they had a roof over their head. It wasn’t their roof.”

Then the surveyors — volunteers, five interns from Jackson State University, Betty Garrett from the Mississippi Department of Human Services, and staff of MOFM — asked people about their health, drug and alcohol history, legal problems and multiple other questions to get an idea of each person’s situation.

The purpose of the counts is to collect data for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will influence the amount of grant money each area receives.

“It’s really important that we get our data out so that when HUD decides to drop funds down to programs like we have, then they shift them up instead of shifting them down,” Hayward said. “Mississippi is known for not applying for a lot of grants.”

A group of about 10 people divided into groups of two and searched 15 separate areas in Vicksburg. All homeless people who participated in the survey were given a personal care kit of hygiene products and those found with very little were given coats.

Hayward knew they wouldn’t be able to find every homeless person in the county, but she tried to find a good sample of people to get an idea of the numbers of homeless in the area.

“When I first started this, I didn’t realized this many homeless people were here,” Hayward said adding some of the volunteer surveyors currently live in a shelter.

She said she has been participating in PIT counts since about 2008. Over the years Warren County has had the homeless numbers rise and fall. In 2010, 71 were counted; in 2012, they counted 204; in 2013, 116 were counted; in 2014, 135 were counted; and in 2015 they counted 82. This year’s count will take time to verify, but Hayward said the unofficial number is 160 sheltered and unsheltered homeless.

“A lot of this data is useful for when people are writing grants for housing, or food stamps, how many food stamps this area needs. They look at all this kind of data — how many homeless people, how many children that are homeless, mental health,” Hayworth said. “All kinds of collected data tells you what kind of funding your areas needs.”

The rain did hinder efforts a bit this year, but Hayward said that it helps them because the people who are out in the elements likely don’t have a place to go.

The day started with a bible reading from Job 23: 1-12 and a devotional with a theme, “When we face unanswered questions, we find help and hope in God’s love.”

MOFM maintains a 90-day emergency shelter and Faith House where people with an income can stay up to 2-years. In 2015, the emergency shelter housed 127 women and children and 35 people entered the transitional housing shelter.

“We are always seeking volunteers at the shelter, and they can always donate money to help the cause — not only doing counts like this, but just help us to continue to operate in our community,” Hayward said adding, there are plenty of other shelters in town that also need help.

Warren County Continuum of Care is part of the Continuum of Care of Central Mississippi, which also covers Hinds, Madison, Copiah and Rankin counties. MOFM is an agency under the membership of the CoC program that is a part of HUD.

“All these agencies’ focus is to end homelessness,” Hayward said.