LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT)-- A recent study finds an alarming number of homeless families in Loudon County and they are finding new ways to tackle the problem.

The Good Samaritan Center is the only place in the county for people to get help with utility bills, finding a job and feeding their families. It's been enough for the county until a recent point in time survey.

Paula Roach, the executive director of the Good Samaritan Center said "Last year in our point of time survey we found only 43 homeless families but this year we found 290 families and we don't have the resources to provide for all of them."

Therefore, the center enlisted the help of the Tennessee Valley Coalition to End Homelessness.

Melanie Cordell, of the TVCEH said "Our purpose is to be the liaison between federal and state funding organizations to funnel that money and regulations down to the local level."

They also help to identify the problems in the county with a 10 year plan to end homelessness.

"We ask how are we going to target and produce some services in the community. If the local committee feels like a shelter or some type of residential physicality is the solution then we're going to start looking on how to make that happen." said Cordell.

It's a long process that starts with the collaboration of a local committee to identify goals and solutions. Then the committee will do another point in time survey to support their needs with solid data.

The Loudon County committee will send their 10 year action plan to HUD to get the ball rolling on federal money.

The plan is still in the beginning stages but Loudon County is on their way to finding a solution for their growing homelessness problem.