Joey Monroe calls himself a survivor. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran has survived since August without a permanent roof over his head, and he understands the consequences of living on the streets. “Anything could have happened to me in the street,“ he said. “I could have ended up dead in the street.“

Hundreds of the Richmond area’s homeless population turned out today for Homeward’s third annual Project Homeless Connect at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

The economy may be improving, but many people continue to seek help through the Central Virginia Foodbank. Hot-line calls increased 50 percent over the previous year—from 2,834 to 4,281 people—in the quarter that ended Sept. 30.

Homelessness in the Richmond area increased 11 percent from last summer, according to a count conducted last month. According to figures released yesterday by the Richmond-based advocacy group Homeward, there were 1,061 homeless people living in metropolitan Richmond on July 23, compared with 958 on July 24, 2008. Meanwhile, the number of homeless children increased slightly and the area’s unsheltered population decreased. The homeless figures include Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, New Kent, Powhatan, Charles City and Goochland.

A homeless Richmond soccer player is among those being considered for a chance to represent the U.S. in the Homeless World Cup next month in Italy. Paul Bigstaff transformed an appearance at the Street Soccer USA Cup in Washington into a chance of playing on the international stage. Bigstaff was chosen Sunday to be included in the pool of players available to represent the United States in the Homeless World Cup in Milan, Sept. 6-13.

It wasn’t all about winning during a four-day escape from a life of homelessness. The fourth annual Street Soccer USA Cup, a weekend-long soccer tournament in Washington, offered eight Richmond homeless men an opportunity to leave their makeshift homes—under a bridge, in a car or in a shelter—to find camaraderie in competition. For the Richmond Rebels, the national tournament in the nation’s capital was their Super Bowl and NCAA basketball championship rolled into one event, said Sheron Teal, 33, a lifelong Richmonder who lives in his car.

Twice a week they come from shelters, beneath bridges and the cars in which they sleep to forget their troubles, if only for an hour. Ranging in age from 19 to 58, they run drills, scrimmage, talk a little trash and generally have a good time. They include chefs, electricians and philosophers. They are the Rebels, Richmond’s homeless soccer team.

Virginia awarded more than $1.1 million in grants yesterday to 12 nonprofit organizations that provide shelter and child services to the homeless in the Richmond and Petersburg areas. The grants were among about $9 million made to 120 homeless shelters around the state. The money includes state funds for shelter programs and federal funds for emergency shelter grants, as well as money for coordinating services for children in shelters or transitional housing.

Virginia awarded more than $1.1 million in grants today to 12 non-profit organizations that provide shelter and child services to the homeless in the Richmond and Petersburg areas. The grants were among about $9 million made to 120 homeless shelters around the state. The money includes state funds for shelter programs and federal funds for emergency shelter grants, as well as money for coordinating services for children in shelters or transitional housing.

A man was beaten in the head with a hammer and gravely wounded in an attack at a homeless camp in South Richmond. Richmond police Capt. Paul Kiniry said the 49-year-old victim was taken to VCU Medical Center after Tuesday’s 11:37 p.m. attack, and he underwent a surgery that lasted well into yesterday morning. “He’s got really severe head injuries,“ Kiniry said.

They are the faceless individuals you don’t see standing on the corner when you’ve stopped at a traffic light. They don’t want to work. They are shiftless and lazy. They are to be avoided. They are to be mistrusted. They are to be arrested for trespassing, for panhandling, for bizarre behavior. They are dirty and dangerous. They have no value. They are the homeless.

Call them Willie, Joe and Betty. They were among Richmond’s homeless yesterday, with no ID and just $5 and a bus ticket. In real life, they’re Art Raymond, principal of Moody Middle School; Alex Evans, minister of Second Presbyterian Church; and Cathy Howard, vice provost for community engagement at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Timothy Joseph Harrington Sr. would do what it took to help. The founding board member of Caritas led local volunteers in repair work in South Carolina after Hurricane Hugo. He traveled to Tanzania several times on Baptist International Mission Board mission trips. And he was not above tackling a plumbing problem that flooded the basement of Bon Air Baptist Church, where he was a deacon.

A man who recruited homeless people to cash stolen checks—including five he drove from a Virginia Beach shelter to Richmond—will be sentenced in federal court today. Myron Kylen Nelson, 25, of Charlotte, N.C., is facing up to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud in a scheme in which homeless people were paid to cash the stolen and altered checks worth a total of $65,071.32.

Chesterfield County police have identified a man whose body was found last month in a marshy area off the 12000 block of Jefferson Davis Highway as Christopher Otis, 59. The state medical examiner’s office has not ruled on a cause of death but noted yesterday that foul play is not suspected. Capt. Robert Skowron said Otis was homeless and apparently living in a car that was found parked at Bermuda Self Storage in the 10500 block of Jefferson Davis Highway.