Davis County is one of 68 communities selected to participate in a national campaign to end veteran and chronic homelessness.
The two-year project, known as Zero: 2016, is being spearheaded by Community Solutions, a national non-profit based in New York City.
Organization officials say they will work intensively with Davis County to meet the federal goals set by President Barack Obama to end veteran homelessness by December 2015, and chronic homelessness by December 2016, according to Kim Michaud, with the Davis Local Homeless Coordinating Council.
The initiative is a follow up to the group’s successful 100,000 Homes Campaign, which announced in June it had helped communities house 105,000 chronically homeless Americans in less than four years.
Davis County was selected for Zero: 2016 through a competitive, national application process, according to a joint press release issued by Michaud and ZERO: 2016 director Beth Sandor and Community Solutions spokesman Jake Maguire.
Michard said the decision for Davis County to apply was made jointly by the local public housing authority, Veterans Affairs, and area care leaders, after the county performed a homeless count in January 2014.
While conducting that count, which involved volunteers taking to the streets during the early morning hours, there were 12 homeless found in the county. Of those cases, 25 percent were considered “chronic” cases, Michaud said.
County Commissioner Louenda Downs said Davis County’s homeless numbers appear low. “But these are people,” she added, in referencing that one is too many.
