According to the survey, 549 people in Champaign County, including 163 children, were homeless in January, when the survey was conducted. The last count held in January 2009 identified 495 homeless persons in Champaign County.

The survey is conducted every two years in order to measure the effectiveness of existing services and to identify ways to reduce homelessness.

Kelly Hartford, interim grants manager for the city of Urbana, explained the change from two years ago.

“The last count had affected significantly more children than this year’s: 264 to 163,” Hartford said. “However, the new count had more overall homeless people. We would like to try and lower that number every survey.”

Darlene Kloeppel, social services director at the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, said this year’s survey was more accurate when it came to in-depth statistics.

“One thing we focused on this year was the count of current housing situations,” Kloeppel said. “We tracked the stats of people who are precariously housed, which are people who may not meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of homelessness, but are couch-surfing or doubling up with someone else. We also took a more accurate count of chronic homelessness, which is defined as someone who has been homeless for over one year or has been homeless more than four times in three years.”

The Continuum of Care is composed of agencies and governmental units committed to ending homelessness in Champaign County. Kloeppel said the results could help the group reduce homelessness in the future.

“The Champaign Continuum of Care usually meets once a month with all the agencies that deal with homelessness to discuss grants and projects to further help our fight against homelessness,” Kloeppel said. “This year’s survey resulted in additional regional Veterans Administration Supportive Housing vouchers to support all 25 veterans who were surveyed.”

The survey noted that the majority of homelessness stems from simply having “no income.” Other leading factors included substance abuse and mental illness. The survey also revealed that only 27 percent of the 549 individuals receive services regarding their problems.

Mya King, freshman in FAA, said she likes the direction the Continuum is taking in supporting the homeless in Champaign.

“I think it’s really nice how they are trying to fight the problem on a monthly basis,” King said. “As long as they get more programs going, they should be able to dramatically lower the homeless population in a few years.”