AUGUSTA – The first-ever coordinated statewide survey of homeless people in Maine will take place March 31, according to Maine State Housing Authority Director Michael Finnegan.

“The information we will gather … will provide us with an accurate picture on the number of homeless people, and it also will provide us valuable information on many other aspects of homeless people, including health needs, how they access services, housing needs, and so on,” Finnegan said.

Continuum of Care grants from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development require recipients to conduct surveys. The cities of Portland and Bangor, and the state housing authority – all separate grant recipients -historically have done separate surveys to meet this requirement.

This year the three – and other entities – are cooperating to do a single survey statewide.

Among those involved in the effort are Portland’s Health and Human Services division, the Lewiston-Auburn Services for the Homeless, the Bangor Bureau of Health and Welfare, the state Department or Behavioral and Developmental Services, and the state Bureau of Health.

Staffs at emergency shelters around the state will help conduct the survey. Generally the census of homeless is taken by looking at the number of times a homeless bed is occupied over a month or a year. A homeless individual or family may be counted several times using this method, as they stay several nights in one shelter, or move from shelter to shelter.

The survey taken March 31 will give an unduplicated count of the homeless population in the state.

During the separate counts taken last year, the survey found 195 homeless people in Portland; 90 in Bangor, and 430 in the remainder of the state, for a total of 715 homeless people. The surveys were not taken simultaneously, however.

Funding from HUD’s Continuum of Care program is used primarily to create more housing for the homeless by financing housing vouchers (which include social service assistance) and supportive housing developments. Maine was awarded $6,339,053 in Continuum of Care funding in its 2002 application.