Next week, thousands of volunteers will start heading out in the early morning darkness and, over the next few hours or days, count the number of homeless people in Southern California.
When an individual being counted is willing to provide more information, they’ll answer questions on a survey.
The local efforts will be part of the nationwide Point In Time homeless census that the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development mandates take place in the last 10 days of January. The counting begins Tuesday, Jan. 22.
The count is used in the planning and allocation of resources to assist homeless people. And it’s a way for people from different walks of life to engage on the issue of homelessness, said Joe Colletti, chief executive officer at the nonprofit HUB for Urban Initiatives in Pasadena.
“It’s the one day where you can say who are all these folks that are homeless and why is this happening? OK, let’s go out and ask them.”
Volunteer teams are guided by maps marked with “hot spots” where homeless people congregate.
Local agencies also do a separate count in shelters, transitional housing, correctional facilities and other institutional settings.
HUD wants an annual shelter/institutional count. The street count is required every other year, although many communities also do that annually.
Technological advances
In the Inland Empire and Orange County, the paper-and-pen method of recording information will take a back seat to the Survey123 for ArcGIS field app developed by the Redlands-based company Esri.
“The geography doesn’t change and the overall methodology doesn’t change. It’s the app that’s really the big difference,” Colletti said.
Volunteers download the app to phones or tablets to collect data that can be viewed in real-time dashboards back at deployment centers.
Unique identifiers and electronic data make it easier to correct any duplication in the count and guide future outreach. Help also can be sent to someone in immediate dire need.
“You’re not just counting people and leaving them on the street,” Colletti said. “You can do intervention right then and there.”
Pasadena and Glendale start early: Pasadena is 8-10 p.m. Tuesday and 6-8 a.m. Wednesday; Glendale is 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Tuesday and 8-10 a.m. Wednesday.
Here’s a look at other 2019 regional efforts:
Long Beach
- Catchphrase: “Everyone Counts!”
- Date/time: Jan. 24, 5 a.m.
- Volunteers targeted: 300
- Learn more: longbeach.gov/Health/Services/Directory/Homeless-Services/
Long Beach signed up enough volunteers before its registration deadline last week and is now compiling a wait list for 2020.
The city has conducted a street count every other year, but 2019 marks the start of what is expected to become an annual enumeration.
An online survey over several days is designed to capture young people 18 to 25 who are homeless or living in precarious situations, such as couch surfing. The aim is to catch homeless young adults, such as students, who may not be reached during the street count.
Long Beach saw a 21 percent reduction in homelessness between its last two streets counts, from 2015 to 2017.
Los Angeles County
- Catchphrase: “They Count. Will You?”
- Date/time: Jan. 22, San Fernando, Santa Clarita, and San Gabriel valleys; Jan. 23, South Bay and harbor cities, east and west L.A. County; Jan. 24, metro Los Angeles, south L.A. County, Antelope Valley. 8 p.m. to midnight all locations, except 6-9 a.m. in Antelope Valley
- Volunteers targeted: 8,000
- Learn more: theycountwillyou.org
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority oversees an area that has the state’s largest homeless population — about 52,765 based on the 2018 report. An overall decline of 4 percent from the previous year marked the first time in four years that homelessness in the greater Los Angeles area did not rise.
However, there was an uptick in the number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time.
LAHSA consults with USC to do the data and statistical analysis, and, like Long Beach, uses a paper-and-pen tally for its street count, with electronic data as backup. Homeless liaisons at school sites have been asked to refer families for survey interviews.
The agency has been collecting the survey questionnaires electronically since December in order to reach at least 5,000 people and will continue through Feb. 28, said Clementina Verjan, LAHSA’s associate director of community engagement policy and systems.
Orange County
- Catchphrase: “Everyone Counts”
- Date/time: Jan. 23, 5-9 a.m. and 7:30-11:30 p.m.
- Volunteers targeted: 1,000
- Learn more: everyonecountsoc.org
This year, with real-time numbers coming in and a 35-question survey planned, Orange County officials look forward to a more revealing census.
Questions include inquiries about city of origin and ties to an area to help address the thorny issue of whether homeless people are native to the communities where they are living or have migrated there from other cities or from outside the county.
“It’s an opportunity to quell the myths and get into solutions around this issue,” said Susan Price, the county’s director of care coordination.
Sending volunteers out for a night count is new, as is recruiting photographers and videographers to document the effort. For the first time, more experienced teams will be dispatched the morning after the main count to any areas that might need a second canvass.
Riverside County
- Catchphrase: “Let’s Make Everyone Count”
- Date/time: Jan. 29, 5:30-9:30 a.m.
- Volunteers targeted: 500
- Learn more: rivcoexchange.com
Riverside County did a successful pilot test of the Esri app last year limited to the city of Riverside.
The countywide rollout comes with expectations of more accurate date, easier counting for the volunteers, and quicker turnaround time on the data.
“Everybody is excited about it,” said Rowena E. Concepcion, an administrative services manager with the county’s Dept. of Public Social Services.
According to the 2018 count, the county experienced an overall decrease in homelessness, with a simultaneous uptick in its homeless street population and decrease in the number of people in shelters.
San Bernardino County
- Catchphrase: None
- Date/time: Jan. 24, 6-10 a.m.
- Volunteers targeted: 500
- Learn more: sbcounty.gov/sbchp
The sheer size of the largest geographic county in the United States — 20,105 square miles with remote and inaccessible mountain and desert areas — poses a challenge.
So the reach of the count here is even more dependent on the number of volunteers and how energized they are in getting out there, said Tom Hernandez, chief of homeless services.
An outreach team from the sheriff’s department will have to traverse areas generally inaccessible to the general public, such as flood control channels.
Last year’s count of 2,118 homeless individuals marked a 13.5 percent increase from 2017.
Redlands, with the county’s third-largest homeless population, and Rancho Cucamonga both recorded high numbers of homeless youth. Rural areas tend to see more older homeless people, Hernandez said.
