On Thursday, Oct. 15, members of the ASK Wellness Society of Merritt and some 20 volunteers will be canvassing the community, looking for an accurate tally of the number of homeless people in Merritt.
Training for volunteers takes place today at 3:30.
The count begins at 8:30 Thursday morning and will go until 2:00 p.m.
A hot meal will be provided for volunteers and anyone who wants to connect at 12 noon, at the Fireside Centre on Granite Ave.
This is the sixth year the society has done the count. “What we do is we come in and provide them with support and resources, and educate them about our agency and other community agencies,” said Stacy Wormwell-Street, co-director of operations for ASK Welleness. The goal is to get them more stabilized within the community, she said.
“The statistics that are calculated from the count are used to lobby local government,” she added. “We use them to help promote social change, and help create awareness around homelessness as an issue in the city of Merritt, and what we can do to pull together as a community to try and help solve homelessness.”
Wormwell-Street said that last year they counted 23 individuals who were “absolutely homeless,” though there’s also a big problem in Merritt with what is known as hidden homelessness.
“What this looks like are people couch surfing, bouncing around from home to home because they don’t have a permanent address for which they pay rent,” she said. “This is a huge issue.”
To help out, contact Wormwell-Street at (250) 315-3323 or (250) 315-0098.
