By Mark Bashore, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-859683.mp3
LANSING, MI – City and county human service workers start a computerized system Thursday to improve services to the area's homeless population.
About 40 community organizations will offer assistance at "Project Homeless Connect" and for the first time some recipients will use an identification card with a bar code.
Joan Jackson Johnson is the Director of Human Services for the city of Lansing. She says electronic data-tracking will speed up delivery of services. It will also provide better data about the needs of the homeless:
"So the uniqueness of this is the ability to accurately determine the level of services that we're providing, and the count kind of helps us in terms of future planning. It helps us with funding possibilities," Jackson Johnson says.
According to a new report, Lansing human services providers assisted 31% more homeless people last year than in 2007. "Project Homeless Connect" offers services and information from about 40 organizations and businesses at the South Washington Office Complex in Lansing.