A collaborative effort to end homelessness for veterans across Central Florida officially got underway Monday.

Called the "surge," more than 400 volunteers will canvas the streets and reach out to homeless veterans across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. The initiative will shape the group's response, which will be focused around finding veterans with long-term housing.

It's the largest and first-of-its-kind effort in Central Florida.

Beginning Monday, volunteers will spend the next week across the region to identify homeless veterans.

The Central Florida Commission on Homelessness spent last week training volunteers to go out and identify the veterans and help them sign up to get into permanent, supportive housing.

It is unclear how many homeless veterans there are in the three-county area because an official count has never taken place, organizers said.

Heidi Lewis, a veteran who was once homeless, is helping with the surge. Without help, Lewis said veterans fade into the background and sometimes end up on the streets.

"The ones that are hurting the most are usually silent," she said. "You are not alone. There are people who care."

In a rural county like Osceola, Lewis said, service organizations have a difficult time identifying veterans who have slipped through the cracks because they live in isolation.

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