Print edition: 
Wichita's homeless population topped 600 during the one-day "point-in-time" count taken in January — a 65 percent jump from the number counted in the last survey in 2007.
Pat Hanrahan, president of United Way of the Plains, attributed the increase to a poor economy and improvements in the way the homeless are being counted.
"I do think we have just gone through, and are still in, the worst recession since the Great Depression," he said. "That combined with the fact that we're getting better at counting folks."
This year's count was taken on Jan. 16, and organizers for the first time invited homeless people to come to Century II's Expo Hall to take advantage of such free services as haircuts and dental screenings.
In previous years, counts were conducted by volunteers who went to shelters and checked under bridges and in other areas where homeless people congregate.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the counts for communities seeking federal funding for homeless services and programs.
The January survey found that 108 of the city's homeless were "unsheltered," which means they were living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings or on the street.
It found that 140 were "chronically homeless," which means they have been homeless for a year or more, or that they have had four or more episodes of homelessness in the past three years.
Hanrahan said the preliminary figures don't include a breakdown of the ages and genders of the homeless.
But he said only 11 percent of the adults reported having some form of employment. That figure is down significantly, he said, from the 17 percent of homeless adults who had jobs in 2009.
At Inter-Faith Ministries, which has room for 50 people at its shelter, executive director Sue Castile said she has seen an increase in demand for services.
"I think the shelters locally are seeing that," she said. "The numbers are disappointingly high."
Castile said her shelter is seeing a growing number of families where both parents have lost their jobs and there isn't enough savings to pay for shelter.
"We're seeing more and more families that don't have a safety net," she said.
