Annual Homeless Count Begins in Monrovia

Volunteers hit the streets of Monrovia to counthomeless during the first day of the Greater Los Angeles Homeless CountTuesday. The count is designed and run by Los Angeles Homeless ServicesAuthority (LAHSA) to help understand and fight homelessness.

Due to the large geography of Los AngelesCounty, the count is split into three days. The Monrovia count is a part of thecount for San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys during the first day. West LosAngeles, Southeast Los Angeles and South Bay were covered on Wednesday andAntelope Valley, Metro Los Angeles and South Los Angeles will be coveredThursday.

Splitting the count into regions also helpsofficials map differences based on areas and respond accordingly.

“Because L.A. County is such a huge geography,there is such a huge population experiencing homelessness. The count reallyhelps get us a better understanding of the need,” LAHSA Policy Manager Erin Coxsaid. “Obviously, not everyone’s experience with homelessness is the same, noteverybody needs the same thing to help them get out of homelessness, so I thinkthe information from the count is used a lot in helping us.”

Intervention methods can change depending on thenumber of families, individuals or youth reported. Annual counts can also beused to track trends, which help determine the effectiveness of current programsor which programs should be given the most priority.

“If we’re seeing a huge rise in peopleexperiencing homelessness for the first time – Well, what does that tell usabout the rental market and the affordable housing crisis?” Cox said. “It helpsus form a more powerful advocacy agenda for which resources are needed thatmaybe we don’t have currently.”

A total of 36 volunteers signed in at the Monrovia Community Center, where they were provided with training before being split up into teams and being assigned locations across the city. Members of the Monrovia Police Department were present to provide safety instructions and to support the effort. Groups of three and four volunteers went out and did a visual-only count of homeless people, as well as vehicles, tents, and makeshift shelters being used by homeless people.

“It really fills us with pride to see so manypeople come out and want to be a part of the count,” said Monrovia Director ofCommunity Services Tina Cherry. “It’s just really impressive to see how manypeople care and want to do a good job, because we as an organization caredeeply about doing this right.”

Jonathan King, a civil engineer at Los AngelesCounty Public Works, is involved with homeless initiatives and noticed anincrease in homelessness in facilities. He volunteered as a concerned citizen.

“Through my normal work, I’ve been exposed tosome pretty extreme and dire situations. I’ve seen some bad situations of homelessnessout there,” King said. “Although I am aware there are people experiencinghomeless in Monrovia, I haven’t seen too much of it, so I just wanted to get anopportunity to get out there and see with my own eyes. As a resident ofMonrovia and as someone who works in the public sector, I felt it was a goodopportunity to learn more about the issue.”

“As a society, we all play a part, and I thinkif you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem,” King said.

Cherry encouraged citizens wanting to helpcombat homelessness to provide aid to existing organizations, such as FoothillUnity Center. “It’s so much more efficient and effective if you support those whoare giving wraparound services as opposed to giving direct services to an individual,”Cherry said. “So often, if we give money or we give food we’re just treating asymptom we’re not really curing the bigger issue.”

In addition to the three-day street count, LAHSAalso gets counts from shelters, hospitals, and special teams. A public releaseof county numbers will be available in May.

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