City staff from the Neighborhood Services Department led a community volunteer event to conduct HUD’s 2013 Point-in-Time count Thursday, January 24 from 6–9 p.m. The group of 27 community volunteers started with a training session conducted by Environmental Inspector Leslie Mitchell, Neighborhood Services Clerk Nateasa Bailey and Neighborhood Programs Manager Kerri Spear at the Champaign Police Department. The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is a survey of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night in January. The volunteers worked in teams of 3-4 and then visited known areas of the community where homeless persons are known to either frequent or live. These counts reveal the number of homeless persons in our shelters and on our streets at a single point-in-time. Each count is planned, coordinated, and carried out locally. The results will be made public later this spring and will offer the Champaign County Continuum of Care (local government and service providers) information to target the needs of the homeless while assisting HUD in allocating federal funds to where they are most needed.