Los Angeles County homeless population count underway
The 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, a point-in-time snapshot of homelessness in Los Angeles County that helps determine the distribution of funding and services to the unhoused, began on Tuesday, with continued counting expected through Thursday.
Volunteers were out Wednesday morning, including in Pasadena, as an attempt to count the unhoused population of Los Angeles County resumes for a second day.
"We've been effective at moving people off the street in the last few years, and we are at about 50 percent of where we were. But even that's too many," Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told KCAL News. "One is too many. And the numbers are ever-evolving, and so we have to continue to strive to have no people on the streets."
Because Pasadena is a smaller jurisdiction, they are trying to do a lot of one-on-one interactions with the city's unhoused.
Volunteers are handing out cold-weather packs containing toiletries and other items, and are asking if people need medication. Pasadena has its own public health department with Narcan available, and vaccinations teams on staff to administer Covid and flu shots.
This year's Los Angeles County count could bear extra significance given the priority that new Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has placed on addressing the crisis since taking office in November. She declared a state of emergency over homelessness as her first official act and has stressed collaboration with the county and LAHSA, a joint powers authority coordinated by both the city and county. The County Board of Supervisors quickly followed Bass's announcement with its own state of emergency declaration, as did the neighboring city of Long Beach.
"Together we are building out the Inside Safe encampments solution. We are cutting red tape to build housing faster and at a lower cost," L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said Monday while introducing Va Lecia Adams Kellum, the new head of the L.A. Homeless Services Authority. "And Dr. Adams Kellum, we are bringing new leadership to LAHSA that is completely aligned with the city and the county's efforts."
On Tuesday, as she and a number of volunteers officially kicked off the count, Karen Bass had a message of hope.
"I am expecting to see people who are still in tents, and can't wait until we can have the opportunity to count and get them out of the tents and into housing," Bass said. "I'm excited about all of the enthusiasm and all the volunteers that I know will be out there."
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's count will be conducted with the help of thousands of volunteers, with the results expected by late spring or early summer. It will begin in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys on Tuesday, followed by counts in West and East Los Angeles on Wednesday. Thursday's count will take place in South Los Angeles, the Metro area and the Antelope Valley. Several local officials, including Bass, will have an introductory news briefing Tuesday night at LA Family Housing in North Hollywood to kick off the count.
Wendy Greuel, chair of LAHSA's commission, said at a briefing on Monday that volunteers are still needed to help count. People can register at theycountwillyou.org.
LAHSA announced changes for this year's count that include using a new app, and ensuring that those counting have access to paper maps and tally sheets for counts if there are issues with connecting to the internet.
For the first time, LAHSA has partnered with Esri, a company that provides software for a geographic information mapping system, in order to streamline their efforts during this year's count.
"The app that they use should be much easier," said Ahmad Chapman, Communications Director with LAHSA. "It really helps us determine what services are needed where and how to help people experiencing homelessness come inside the shelter and get on the path to permanent housing."
On top of tracking where volunteers go during their count, the app tracks people, encampments and vehicles across the county to compile as much data as possible.
Agency officials said earlier this month that they also plan to hire a demographer and two data scientists for data analysis.
The 2022 homeless count by LAHSA revealed 41,980 unhoused people in the city of Los Angeles, up 1.7% from 2020. In the county, there were 69,144 unhoused people, an increase of 4.1%.
"I think we're gonna see a bigger population, I know we're gonna count everybody who's in a shelter and everybody who's outside," said Andy Bales, President and CEO of Union Rescue Mission. "I can tell you first hand we have more families than we've ever had. We have over 250 families at our three sites with 500 kids, which is an all-time high."
While it's exceedingly difficult to precisely count every unhoused person in Los Angeles County, Bales is optimistic about the future with Mayor Bass's directives already being put into action.
"We just have to listen to Mayor Karen Bass when she says we don't just need housing, we need mental health support and we need addiction recovery services," he said.
Last year's count was followed by criticism from some officials, including members of the City Council, who pointed to issues with accessing data related to the count and inconsistencies in communication between the agency and council districts. Some council members called for a third party count of Los Angeles' unhoused population and a multi-year audit of authority's previous counts.
