by Krystal Paco

Guam - The Guam Homeless Coalition conducted its annual point-in-time count today to survey potential clients living without a night time residence or living in substandard homes. Vice chairwoman Diana Calvo along with team leader volunteer Gerhard Schwab say today's event was a success.

"The information helps the coalition to identify what are some project areas that we would need to focus on to address those issues that contribute to homelessness," Calvo noted, with Schwab adding, "A big issue for many of our households is they simply cannot get to their jobs, they cannot access job opportunities because they don't have a car and the public transport is not sufficient to help them to get to the offices or to get to their appointments or sustain a location."

The homeless count has been conducted for the last 12 years. Calvo says the villages of Agana, Anigua, Dededo and Yigo feature the highest populated villages of homeless individuals. Last year's count featured close to 1,400 homeless individuals. The data should be ready in the next two months to be used for policy making and obtaining grants.