They sleep under bridges, in their cars and doubled up in homes with friends, and they aren't just veterans with mental illness.

Casper's homeless population includes families and those with stable jobs, said Brandon Espinoza, the program director of LifeSteps Transitional Housing Program.

"You're just one medical crisis or one job crisis away from being there," he said.

In the past three years, Espinoza said he's seen between 10 and 12 families ask the transitional program for help because a medical crisis took them from middle-class to bankruptcy and eventually to homelessness.

Casper's homeless doesn't sleep on doorsteps of buildings or overheated sewer vents. We may not see them on our way to work in the morning. Being homeless in a small Western town like Casper is tough, Espinoza said. Counting them in the hopes of receiving more funding is also difficult.

Espinoza said this year they got lucky, because the U.S. Housing and Urban Development department's annual count is usually in January.

There aren't many people sleeping in parks or under bridges in January in Casper, Espinoza said, which meant he and staff members couldn't find many people in past years. The ones who weren't in shelters were sleeping on friends' floors and couldn't be counted. Without any numbers to record, homeless agencies don't get the funding they need.

Thursday was the "point-in-time" count for Wyoming. Agencies such as the Transitional Housing Program, Healthcare for the Homeless and Interfaith gathered together on LifeSteps Campus, a conglomerate of agencies dedicated to helping those in need, and prepared to find as many people as possible.

Rocking back and forth on her worn sneakers and staring at the ground, Interfaith Housing Counselor Linda Brown said she usually wears suits to work. Thursday she was wearing jeans, a bulky coat and scarves tied around her head covered by a black felt hat.

"You've got to blend in," Brown said, leaning in close and speaking over the wind.

Espinoza said many of the homeless are skittish, unsure of strangers and uncomfortable with people in suits with name tags.

"You don't want to give them the impression you're better than they are," Espinoza said, wearing a backward, blue baseball cap, gray basketball shirt and faded jeans.

"You've also got to go out early," Brown said. "And you've got to have something to give them."

Brown and half a dozen others went out armed with Daylight donuts and Pizza Hut pizza.

Driving off the campus onto 13th Street in a 15-passenger gray van, casual discussion among the workers turned to a plan of action.

"Is anyone here bilingual?" one woman asked.

"I know how to speak homeless," a man answered from the front seat. "I'm broke. I've been there."

"It's not usually hard to pinpoint them," another said. "They've been beat up and beat down."

"We need to say a little prayer that we can get some of them out of this," Brown said.

Groups of two and three were dropped in various places in Casper: Adams Park, under the Poplar Street bridge, behind the Parkway Plaza. Some of the spots Espinoza said are well-known camps, others are less are less common. The Casper Police Department gave him some places officers have seen homeless people.

The homeless shelters, food kitchens and other agencies in Casper and across Wyoming also counted their numbers on Thursday, establishing the statewide need.

Espinoza said the numbers and grant requests will be submitted to HUD in July, with funding notification sometime in December or January.

He knows there's more homeless in Casper now than in the past. He's seen an increase the number of visits and calls, and the transitional programs are generally full with a waiting list.

"With the help of numbers we are hoping to get more funding," he said, crossing his fingers. "There's really no transitional place that takes singles."

At the end of the count on Thursday, Brown said, her team found 172 homeless men and women.

Espinoza also hopes people will become more aware of the homeless population in Casper, because, he said, we're not that different.

Contact city reporter Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@trib.com