Tim’s path to homelessness has been long and arduous.

He worked in Kentucky tobacco fields when he was 8 years old. His father was a physically abusive alcoholic who moved Tim’s family 11 times in one year. Tim left home at 14.

Tim now is 52 and one of the hundreds of homeless people living in McHenry County. Last week, McHenry County Public Action to Deliver Shelter and Pioneer Center for Human Services organized a “point-in-time” survey to identify how many homeless individuals live in the county. The numbers from the 12th annual survey still are being tallied.