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Beaufort County human services outlines outreach to unsheltered residents, plans resource event
Summary
Human Services staff described outreach, a community contact log, warming-shelter coordination and plans to reschedule a multi-agency resource event canceled by winter weather.
Katrina Anchondo, Outreach Systems Coordinator for Beaufort County Human Services, told the Community Services Committee on March 3 that she has mapped reported sites of unsheltered residents, logged community contacts and coordinated outreach events with 180 Place and local law enforcement.
Anchondo said she joined county human services in May and has worked to identify “what are the people we’re trying to serve, what do they need, what are they saying they need,” compiling information from nonprofit, faith-based and government partners as well as businesses and social media reports. "Anything that exists to help others is what I've been…trying to identify," she said.
The county’s outreach work has included short, joint outreach events with 180 Place — a Charleston-based nonprofit that serves unsheltered people in the region — and a warming-shelter network that opens during extreme cold. Anchondo said she also maintains a contact log of callers with needs and refers cases to specialized providers, such as Hopeful Horizons for domestic-violence cases, when appropriate.
Human Services staff and partners had planned a four-day resource event with about a dozen agencies to coincide with what staff intended as an unofficial annual point-in-time count after HUD changed the cadence of its federal point-in-time surveys; the winter storm that produced icy roads forced cancellation. "We are continuing to look forward for a summer event," Anchondo said, adding staff will use the existing planning relationships to reschedule.
Committee members asked about local coordination — including contacts on Hilton Head Island — and about 180 Place’s scope; staff said 180 Place is the assigned regional agency based in Charleston. Anchorondo and other staff said they will help community groups planning smaller resource events with information on local agencies.
Committee chair and members thanked staff and encouraged follow-up on scheduling and inter-jurisdictional contacts for rescheduling the resource event.
The committee received the report as an informational update; no formal action was taken.
