Los Angeles County’s annual homelessness count began Tuesday night — a key part of the county’s efforts to confront the crisis of tens of thousands of people living on the streets.
Up to 6,000 volunteers with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority support a key component of the effort, the unsheltered street count.
The so-called “point in time” count will last three days and aims to estimate the number of unhoused people and the services they need, such as mental health or drug addiction treatment.
LA County’s effort is the largest among similar numbers in major cities across the country.
The calculations, which also use demographic surveys and housing counts, are mandated by the federal government for cities to receive certain types of funding.
This year’s count comes amid growing public anger over a perceived failure – despite costly efforts – to reduce the growing population of people living in cars, tents and makeshift street shelters.
LA City Council President Paul Krekorian, right, is joined by Supervisor Kathryn Barger, center, who represents Los Angeles County’s 5th supervisory district, walking the streets at the start of the annual homeless count in North Hollywood on January 23, 2024. AP
Effort 2023 reported more than 75,500 people were homeless on any given night in LA County, a 9% increase from the previous year.
About 46,200 are in inner city Los Angeles, where public frustration has grown as tents have grown on sidewalks and in parks and other locations.
Since 2015, homelessness has increased by 70% in counties and 80% in cities.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass waits to speak during a news conference at the start of the annual homeless count in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles on January 23, 2024. AP
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, joined city and county officials to begin the count Tuesday night in the North Hollywood neighborhood of LA’s San Fernando Valley.
The count “is an important tool to confront the homelessness crisis,” Bass said in a statement. “Homelessness is an emergency, and we will all work together to face this emergency.”
On his first day in office on Dec. 2022, Bass declares a state of emergency on the homeless.
LA County’s effort is the largest among similar numbers in major cities across the country. AP
A year into his term, the mayor, a Democrat, announced that more than 21,000 homeless people had been moved to rented hotels or other temporary shelters in 2023, a 28% increase from the previous year.
Dozens of drug-infested street camps have been cleared, and housing projects are in the works, he said last month.
City Hall, the City Council and the LA County Board of Supervisors have said they intend to work together to address the crisis.
Progress is not always visible despite the billions spent on programs to curb homelessness.
Homelessness remains significant across California with people living in tents and cars and sleeping outside on sidewalks and under freeway overpasses.
LA County homeless count results are expected to be released in late spring or early summer.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
