ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Next Thursday, a team of volunteers will go around Rochester overnight to count the number of people sleeping on the streets. Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean will be embedded with the volunteers.

Berkeley was with them Thursday as they prepared the bags of survival items they’ll be handing out.

News10NBC was in the room where the volunteers were preparing for the count of people who are unhoused in our community. They packed the bags that they are going to hand out to every single person they count.

The yellow bags will contain granola bars, hand warmers, personal items including combs, Mylar blankets, bottled water, and now Narcan — which helps reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

Charles Bollinger, Partners Ending Homelessness Deputy Director, explained the purpose of the bags.

“We use the bags as an icebreaker to start the conversation so that we can conduct the survey with the unsheltered individual,” Bollinger said. “If they are not unsheltered, but they still need a bag we give it to them anyway because a lot of times people do need the items that are in the bags.”

The volunteers are required by the federal government to ask a series of questions.

“How long they homeless? Where they are currently staying? Like the specific location, like if they are staying on a certain street, and alcove or on steps, or in a stairwell, something like that,” Bollinger said.

Berkeley will be embedded with a group that is going to go out and try to find people who are homeless, sleeping outside on what could be one of the coldest nights of the year. He plans to report from the street while doing the count.

Last year, the count found 80 people sleeping out in the cold. The year before it was 40. This year’s count is on January 23.

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