Members of the Community Alliance of Sarasota County’s Homeless Committee took their first steps Thursday in getting some of the more than 400 families with nearly 800 children off the streets, out of shelters and into affordable housing.

Committee members received a presentation of a recent survey by Sarasota Family YMCA’s Schoolhouse Link Program that showed there are 348 homeless families and 637 homeless children in Sarasota County, with another 71 families and 156 children being identified as being “at imminent risk” of becoming homeless within 14 days.