L.A. Homeless Count Goes Local

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County-wide homeless count was conducted. The overall county number was released this past June. (The number was 91,000 people who are homeless.)

Sometime in November, the local numbers will be released. Jurisdictions throughout the county will be given numbers for their area. Here is an article about this.

I wrote about this in a Los Angeles op-ed piece last July. Here is the op-ed piece. The “homeless numbers game” is high stakes political maneuvering at its best. Where the numbers are, there also goes the money. Where the numbers are low, the funding gets reduced.

For example, if the Westside of Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica would have a low number from the count, federal/county/city funds could very well be reduced. That means the current homeless providers would have to cut their programs and services because funding cuts. Can you imagine the political and local response to that?

So areas throughout the county are obviously nervous. In my opinion, this “numbers game” takes away from community stakeholders putting their energy into solving the problem. Instead, people are fighting for their “piece of the pie” rather getting together to find out what is the best way to use limited resources to create solutions.