Count finds 675 homeless in county
Housing advocates worry 26% increase could offset progress By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun DURHAM -- A single-day count in late January found 140 more homeless people in Durham County than did a companion assessment in 2009. The annual point-in-time count, orchestrated by the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition and conducted the night of Jan. 27-28, found 675 people who met the federal government's definition of being homeless. Of those, 607 were in some sort of emergency or transition shelter, according to figures advocates have relayed to local officials and a statewide nonprofit. The rest were staying in places the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development deems "unfit for human habitation," like cars, abandoned buildings, makeshift campsites or the streets. A similar count last year found 535 homeless people in Durham County. Housing advocates were expecting an increase, …