Volunteers took to the streets Tuesday night as part of the Point in Time Count.
The city of Windsor started taking part in the survey to get a better picture of homelessness back in 2016 — the information gathered is used locally and nationally.
Co-ordinator of Housing Administration and Development Kelly Goz tells AM800 News the information is used to better help those in need.
"The numbers are used for systems planning to assure that we have the right resources to understand the depth of breadth of homelessness in our community and understand some of the challenges and barriers that they are experiencing," she says.
Goz says there are several parts to the survey to inform all levels of government.
"One is federal — which is more like a census type thing — then there are some mandatory provincial questions," says Goz. "At the end there is an identifiable survey that is done to understand a little bit more about the person's needs."
She expects this year's count to be higher.
"In 2016 we had engaged 201 persons experiencing homelessness," she says. "We anticipate this year anecdotally that number will be higher but until we do the count we don't know what those numbers really look like yet."
The city co-ordinates the count with the Homeless Coalition of Windsor Essex County — the survey is conducted over a 24-hour period.
— with files from AM800's Peter Langille.