Schuylkill County wants its homeless to come in out of the cold.

County human services agencies will be taking a head count of the homeless over several days later this month to find out how many did not have a permanent place to live on Jan. 29.That one-day tally, called a point-in-time count, will be used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help determine the number and amount of federal grants the county gets to help its homeless.Those without a place to call home can come in to a number of places in the county to be counted, and they do not have to do that on Jan. 29. They just need to tell those doing the counting whether or not they had a home to sleep in as of that one day.The count will be held Jan. 29, 30, 31 and Feb. 1.One of those places is the Salvation Army center on Broad Street in Tamaqua, said Gerald Achenbach, Service Access and Management.He's also the county's housing director, and the chairman of the Schuylkill County Local Housing Options Team, which seeks to find housing for the homeless.The agencies are relying on word-of-mouth among the homeless to get the word out about the count, Achenbach said at a county commissioners' meeting Wednesday."We rely a lot on their network. We develop contacts with some of those folks, and they spread the word for us," he said.Last year, and in 2013, the agencies sent out teams to try to find homeless folks."Our original model was that of a street search, where teams went out onto the street and searched in abandoned buildings and in the woods and in railroad cars to look for people who were homeless," he said.But that didn't provide an accurate count.Last year, we added some base sites, and asked the homeless to come to us. That was successful," Achenbach said.So this year, the agencies added more sites for the homeless to come in and be counted."We'll do a short interview, and try to connect them with human services agencies," he said." We'll also provide them with motel vouchers so they have a place to stay for a few days so we can start working with them, grocery gift cards and some food."Keith Semerod, deputy county administrator for mental health, said there are more homeless than meets the eye."There's more than we find," he said. "The first year, we found 13, the second year we found 39."The higher number, Achenbach said, is likely due to "better work and more volunteers."However, given the past several years' tumultuous economy, homeless has likely increased, he said. The need for shelter is clear. Although Schuylkill Women In Crisis operates a shelter for victims of domestic violence, and other agencies offer some temporary housing, the county lacks a homeless shelter.Both men believe the count will be higher this year."We have more expertise in where and how to look, and what questions to ask," Semerod said. "There's more than 39."