A homeless man who only wants to be named Mike sits outside a fast food restaurant on High Street Wednesday afternoon.

November is Homelessness Awareness Month, but the city of Columbus is working to raise the profile of this issue year round.

The City Council unanimously approved legislation to create a homeless advocate position in the office of the mayor. City Council Communications Director John Ivanic said the idea for a homeless advocacy position came from a conversation between City Council President Michael C. Mentel and Mayor Michael B. Coleman last spring.

Ivanic said the homeless advocacy office is unique among cities nationwide.

The legislation passed at the Oct. 22 meeting committed $20,000 for the position and began the search for a person to fill it.

Once the position is filled, the homeless advocate will coordinate efforts between the city and private and nonprofit organizations on behalf of the city’s homeless population.

Michael Brown, Coleman’s press secretary, said the advocate also will serve as a single point of contact for policy and protocol planning on homeless issues, equating it to similar advocacy positions on the mayor’s staff for issues related to the veterans.

Columbus will spend more than $3.7 million on programs for the homeless in the fiscal year 2007 through the Community Shelter Board, which coordinates funding and services among many non-profit organizations that serve the homeless in the area.

“While the numbers aren’t in the thousands they are certainly in the hundreds, and those are people that aren’t even in the shelters, and with the cold weather it’s only going to get worse,” said Suzanne Gravette Acker, communications and development director for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.

More than 7,500 people were served by emergency homeless shelters in Columbus during the 2006 fiscal year, according to the Community Shelter Board’s Community Report on Homelessness. The average stay in an emergency shelter was 41 days for men and 31 days for women.

According to the report, about 800 people were served by long-term supportive housing and the Rebuilding Lives program during 2006.

“We applaud all efforts to raise awareness to homeless in our city and state,” Acker said.

Brown said the city is starting the job search now, and will fill the position once it identifies the best candidate.

Michael Paull can be reached at [email protected].