A group of volunteers has fanned out across the Island this week, looking for people without homes who they hope to include in this year’s point-in-time homeless person count.

Part of a national effort by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Vineyard count is organized by Dukes County in collaboration with the Cape and Islands Regional Network to Address Homelessness. The numbers will be used to determine how to distribute funds for homelessness programs. Volunteers will be visiting libraries, community suppers, the state forest and other locations around the Island.

The count will continue through Saturday, but only people who were without a conventional shelter on the night of Wednesday, Feb. 25, will be included. Volunteers will carry forms, but all information is confidential. The forms are due back on Monday, when volunteers will regroup for a meeting at the county offices.

On Monday this week, about 10 volunteers, representing the Red Cross, town boards of health, affordable housing groups and other organizations familiar with the problem of homelessness, met at the county offices to prepare for the next few days.

Commissioner Tristan Israel, who is volunteering, stressed the importance of letting people know that the goal was to benefit the homeless. “That’s the message that really has to be gotten out at the beginning,” he said.

Some volunteers pointed to challenges of conducting a federal survey in a small community where there are no official shelters and people are often reluctant to share personal information.

The survey asks for basic information, such as name or initials, gender and ethnicity, but also asks questions related to domestic violence, drug abuse and mental illness.

Those who are chronically homeless — without a home for more than a year, or who have been without shelter more than four times in the last three years — will also be tallied.

“This strikes me as being really much more oriented toward urban situations,” said volunteer Marina Lent, who is also the Chilmark health inspector. “People on the Island do not advertise their homelessness.

“And you can’t walk up to the people you know are potentially in trouble and ask for personal information. People are much more private than that and you may never talk to them again if you did that,” she said.

“It’s more about who do you know, what are the connections that you can make, and how comfortable can you make the people to talk to you,” said county manager Martina Thornton, who is leading this year’s count.

Organizers have reached out through Islanders Talk, a popular Facebook group, to encourage people to phone volunteers if they have any information that might be useful. Names and other personal information will not be required of those calling in, and all information will be kept confidential.

Ewell Hopkins of Oak Bluffs, who is also volunteering, pointed out that part of the challenge comes from the willingness of so many people on the Island to support people in need of shelter. People living in hotels or in basements, for example, will not be included in the count.

“We have so much informal support in this community, people doing so many amazing things that it kind of undermines getting the high number,” he said. “But people don’t want attention, they don’t want support. They don’t want people to know they are doing it.”

Part of what makes the count so important, he said, is that it relies on face-to-face contact.

“It would be one thing to publicize and say, please call in,” he said. “But that’s not going to happen on the Vineyard. We have to go out and find where people are.”

Anyone with suggestions for the count may call Mr. Hopkins at 508-560-4912, Mr. Israel at 774-563-0707, or Marie Doubleday at 508-208-6070.