Tedium... this is the state I find myself in, making me want to poke my eyes out. I need to compile, in spreadsheet form, a complete list of all the homeless shelters and soup kitchens in Detroit. Why you ask? Well, in January we (meaning a bunch of people in Detroit) will be, on one night, counting all the homeless men, women, and children in the city. We need to have an accurate count of how many are homeless so we know what kind of services we need to provide and so we can tell if there are more or (hopefully) fewer homeless than there were two years ago when the count was last completed. At our last count there were about 14,000 homeless in Detroit. My spreadsheet project will help us map the locations of these shelters to help us determine some "prime" areas of where the homeless may be and help us count the 140 square miles of Detroit more efficently.
Our purpose in doing this count is to not only get the number we need, but also to raise awareness in the community about the homeless. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about who is homeless. The "typical" homeless person most people envision - the one who walks along the sidewalks drunk or mumbling to themselves - in fact make up one of the smallest proporation of the entire homeless population. The largest and fastest growing population of people without a home are children. Kids. Homeless through entirely no fault of their own. This is shocking!
Our slogan for this count is "Every Person Counts".
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