In an effort to slow down the increasing number of homeless individuals in Seattle, a joint effort by the city of Seattle, United Way of King County and the Committee to End Homelessness in King County have trained more than 500 Seattleites to survey unsheltered people in Seattle next Monday night.

Taking a cue from Toronto, which first started the survey, Seattle will be sending volunteers to designated areas in teams of three, where they will approach every single person they see to participate in the assessment.

“We’re making absolutely no assumptions or using typical stereotypes of what homeless people may look like,” Julie Moore, communications director of the Office of Housing said. “That’s something Toronto found, that when they did this survey you may be surprised when you come up to someone in business attire who just came out of work but actually may not have a home.”

Volunteers will ask citizens if they are sleeping indoors that evening, between the hours of 9 p.m. to midnight on Monday April 13. They will also ask those who are not staying in a home or shelter to participate in the confidential voluntary survey.

“We will ask them to self identify things like age, race, gender to get a little bit of demographic information,” Moore said. “We’ll ask what are the barriers, why they don’t have housing, do they have a conviction on their record, have they been evicted before; Do they have a mental illness and what kind of services are they currently aware of?”

For their participation, individuals will receive $5 gift cards, donated by United Way.

Laminated cards will also be provided with services that citizens may go to or call to help connect and find what other options are out there and what other services are available, said Moore.

With the help of the University of Washington, the survey will provide statistically valid information about the unsheltered homeless and the needs of people living on the streets of Seattle.

The city of Seattle allocates more that $40 million a year on services for the homeless. The Homeless Needs survey will provide important insight into how resources can be used most effectively to prevent and to end homelessness, by seeking information, such as what services people use or need, how they learn about programs and what experiences they’ve had to face.

“We’re trying to learn more from the people directly, we have no expectations and hopefully think about how we could change things to meet needs,” Moore said.