Volunteer Jennifer Graham, who works in Baltimore, approached a man huddled under a blanket in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood near the Inner Harbor downtown on a wet and wintery Sunday night in January.

It was around 9 o’clock when volunteers fanned out. Graham found the man, whose name is not being shared in this news story because he’s participating in an anonymous survey for city leaders to accurately tally how many individuals without shelter need help, likely spent the night outside in the rain.

And he’s not alone.

“We're taking a census tonight, do you want to take a census with me?” Graham asked the man.

He was not interested in participating to share detailed experiences about what it’s like living on the streets of Baltimore City. But Graham instead gathers some basic information about himself then leaves a free ‘care package’ beside him that includes warm clothes, food and toiletries.

Graham is just one out of about 100 volunteers who scoured city alleys and corners where people without stable housing may reside after dark on a recent weeknight.

The city’s Point-In-Time Count is an annual survey required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development because city coffers receive about $26 million each year to fund programs which may combat homelessness by using the grants for public housing programs and the like.

The survey takers ask individuals experiencing homelessness various questions, such as their legal name, military status, race and gender. It also asks about whether the individual uses illicit drugs or is struggling with mental health.

Officials are less interested in how many individuals respond to the survey as the estimate is tallied, instead it’s a qualitative snapshot in time.

But this year’s count may be more beneficial than in years past because, in theory, there’s more money than ever to help those in need.

In 2022, the city received $75 million in one-time funding from the federal government for resources to tackle homelessness issues through the American Rescue Plan Act, a COVID-19 relief fund.

“We are leveraging $15.4 million of those dollars to increase affordable housing in the city of Baltimore,” said Faith Leach, deputy mayor for equity, health and human services.

While the census is a snapshot of what homelessness is like in the city, it can affect where the city puts its funds and how much HUD ends up allocating to the city, according to Irene Agustin, director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services.

“What we hope to get out of it is really a snapshot of who's sheltered and unsheltered homeless,” Agustin said. “I try [to] identify people who are unsheltered. But at the same time, we're working with our shelters collecting [Homeless Management Information System] data.”

In 2022, volunteers counted about 1,600 people living on Baltimore City streets. Nearly 70% were men, about 75% self-identified as Black and a quarter were considered chronically homeless — which means they have been without shelter for more than a year.

That’s fewer people experiencing homelessness than in 2020 when volunteers tallied 2,200 individuals during the height of the coronavirus pandemic which began in March 2020.

During an average year, city officials estimate that there are about 5,200 people total experiencing homelessness across Baltimore City as the exact number of people struggling fluctuates due to weather patterns and availability of safety nets such as family members with extra couch space.

Graham’s volunteer efforts on Jan. 23 searching for people on a dark rainy evening did not end that night. The surveys continued the next night as well to try to get the best sample of people answering the questions.

It’s not a perfect estimate because many individuals are simply not interested in the survey.

In addition, many people trying to survive without stable housing are skeptical of any officials from outreach workers to law enforcement. Many say their experiences trying to sleep inside a shelter has been traumatic, according to Agustin, the city official.

That means, more often than not, the average person will turn down most offers to sleep somewhere indoors that’s warmer than outside in the elements despite bitter cold temperatures in Baltimore City that can regularly drop to freezing temperatures during winter months, officials said.

Despite the lack of interest, volunteers kept walking that night.

Eryk Kokosinski, a Baltimore resident who recently graduated from Johns Hopkins University, volunteered for the second year in a row to help complete the survey.

“I took a class on the culture of the medical profession,” Kokosinski said. “One day the professor mentioned this cool volunteer opportunity. So, I signed up. And through that experience, last year, I was able to just really learn a lot, not only about the homeless[ness] issue, but just getting to see a lot of Baltimore.”

The volunteer team included one high-ranking official who trekked from Washington D.C. to the streets of Baltimore City. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Veteran Affairs Donald Remy volunteered for the survey taking efforts and spent time with teams like Graham on the front lines.

“When you come out and you talk to people face to face, and you hear their stories, and you offer them services, you can get to a point where there's comfortability with what we're trying to do and how we're trying to do it,” Remy said. “Hopefully, we can help them find that path to shelter.”