People all over the state have been roaming alleys, county roads, homeless shelters and even jails in an attempt to get an accurate count of the homeless population. Doing so will allow Alabama to take advantage of some federal funding it’s lost years past. That money, in turn, will pay for emergency shelters, job training and other services.

Michelle Farley is the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Birmingham Services for the Homeless. Her agency began its count Thursday night and wrapped things up around 7 o?clock Friday morning.

Farley says they don’t have any solid numbers yet, but she expects the city’s homeless population to have increased over the 1,489 counted last year. The rural count, she says, will be trickier. She says rural homeless aren’t as easy to identify as those in urban areas. Farley says there aren’t the shelters out in rural areas you find in cities like Birmingham.