PHOTOS: Central County Outreach Workers Count Homeless

Hopping fences and climbing under bridges, volunteers and outreach workers searched for homeless encampments in the early hours of Wednesday morning as part of the biennial Contra Costa County homeless count.

Doug Stewart of Central County Homeless Outreach and his team joined volunteers across the county to tally the number of homeless people living "unsheltered" in hand-built encampments and vehicles. The outreach workers were out from dawn until early afternoon, counting for around seven hours.

Meanwhile, the 120 volunteers taking part in the count organized by Contra Costa Health Services spent two hours out in local communities.

According to Contra Costa Health Services, the numbers from the 2013 count will be available in a couple of weeks.

At total of 1,490 homeless people were counted in 2011, with Concord producing the highest tally in the county at 301, followed by Richmond with 235, Antioch with 173 and Martinez with 130.