The county is looking for 50 volunteers to help with the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count on Thursday, Jan. 26, in the West Hollywood area.
The yearly count conducted by the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority collects data that is an “essential component in understanding the scope and nature of homelessness in Los Angeles County” and informs where tax dollars are spent.
Last year, volunteers counted only 46 homeless people in West Hollywood, which astounded residents who see dozens of unhoused individuals on a daily basis.
LAHSA has this to say of its accuracy and methods: “We take several steps to ensure the unsheltered count is as thorough as possible. We assign hard-to-reach areas, such as river embankments and heavily wooded areas, to special teams composed of professional street outreach workers. Each volunteer watches the same training video to ensure uniformity. We rely heavily on local community members (including deployment site coordinators) who know their neighborhood best and can check whether volunteers missed any key areas. Finally, we review all submitted data before the end of January for quality assurance.”
The count begins at 8 p.m. Thursday evening and continues until midnight. The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count covers all of L.A. County except the cities of Glendale, Pasadena, and Long Beach, which conduct their own counts.
The count is conducted at night because the homeless are “more mobile during the daytime and might be counted twice.” Only those who are literally homeless are included; “couch-surfers” are not, according to the website.
LAHSA is the lead agency in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, the regional planning body that coordinates housing and services for homeless families and individuals in Los Angeles County. They administer funds from the federal, state, county, and city to non-profit organizations that provide direct services to homeless people.
It’s the week of the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count! Now, more than ever, it’s time to support the most vulnerable among us.
The annual census of our homeless neighbors will take place Jan, 24th-26th, and it’s not too late to register! pic.twitter.com/fYt0DVmDd3— LA Homeless Services Authority (@LAHomeless) January 23, 2023
LAHSA confirmed the Weho count is not open to volunteers, despite whatever it says on the City website.
Counted…too many.
Will the Counciltwits be front and center assisting in the count? Great photo opportunity especially if they’re handing out the free socks and keys to the homeless motel.
If less than 50 people are ruining the quality of life for so many residents of West Hollywood, then we are complete idiots. Put these hopeless people back in facilities and take back our streets!!
bingo.
The People here do not know the boundary’s of this tiny little city.
What you might claim inside Weho actually is inside big LA booooo
I would think 46 is accurate. You just see the same ones all the time. I don’t see that many homeless here. The ones that do peruse our streets are certainly present though. I wish we’d force them all on their meds. It has to be 90% that have mental illness. The free phone, money, food, Netflix, shelter, etc doesn’t work.
No, it does not.
Why don’t they count during the day time????
Per the above article:
I have an idea, why don’t we send out Richard Maggio to count the homeless. He might locate some people still waiting to get on the City’s gravey train for cheapo luxury housing, like at the Domain.