Homeless count in the Fox Cities

APPLERTON - The weather has turned harsh in the Fox Valley: snow fallen. The wind blowing.

"For someone to be sleeping in these conditions is very troublesome and very dangerous," said Chris Lashock the client service coordinator for the Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley.

He told FOX 11 about 60 volunteers will spend Wednesday night looking for anyone living outside from Neenah to Appleton to Kaukauna.

"Provide them with the information and resources to get them into a shelter setting," explained Lashock.

The count will include sheltered areas on the streets for anyone who might be living in the elements.

As well as "individuals that are residing in homeless shelters as well as transitional housing programs will also go into the count," explained Lashock.

Lashock told us the Fox Cities Housing Coalition does these counts twice a year. Volunteers typically finds about 300 people experiencing some form of homelessness.

This year, Outagamie County Emergency Management is providing computerized tracking of the volunteer groups to make sure they're safe in the elements.

"If there's something happening in the community that's dangerous to them we can notify the groups and they can be evacuated from the area," said Robert Olson with emergency management.

The program will also allow emergency management to pinpoint where volunteers find homeless people.

"Gives us a location we can pull up on mapping and say this is where we've had homeless, have the shelter go out and check for their clients," explained Olson.

Lashock told us this is all part of the goal of eliminating homelessness completely.

"So long as there's one person out there who needs our help, we'll be here," said Lashock.