Read the full article by Chris Nichols and Keyshawn Davis at CapRadio, SN&R and The Sacramento Observer
Heather Coffman says she left her home nearly two decades ago to escape the domestic violence that shattered her family.
“It was my parents. I didn’t have a choice in the matter,” Coffman explained, standing barefoot near her tent under Highway 50 at Howe Avenue in Sacramento. “I didn’t want to be part of it no more, so I had to leave.”
Coffman, 42, a Rancho Cordova native, spoke with volunteers from the Sacramento County homeless Point-In-Time Count Wednesday night. The biennial survey, which continues Thursday in neighborhoods, parks and along riverbanks countywide, does more than just tally the region’s unhoused residents. It also asks them how long they’ve lived on the streets, where they’re from and what caused their homelessness.
Organizers say the goal is to learn who is unhoused and why so the Sacramento region can better align its homeless funding and services. The results of the count are used to determine state and federal funding for the county’s homeless shelters and other services.