How many are homeless?

Volunteers are needed for this year’s count

Volunteers in the Antelope Valley are needed to help count the homeless in the 2019 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.

This year’s count will be conducted Jan. 22 to 24 in Los Angeles County. The homeless count is mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and coordinated by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Hundreds of volunteers will be needed to count the homeless in the Antelope Valley on Jan. 24. Last year about 250 people signed up to count.

“What we’re looking to do this year is get well above that,” said Timothy Kirkconnell, community engagement coordinator for the Antelope Valley.

As of Thursday about 100 people have signed up.

“Anybody and everybody that wants to sign up we encourage them to,” Kirkconnell said.

Volunteers must be at least 18 years old. Volunteer counters typically work in teams of two people who set out in their community to identify and count homeless people in their assigned area. They conduct visual counts of people living on the streets, in tents, in makeshift shelters or in their cars. They will count between 6 and 9 a.m.

Volunteers will be shown an 11to 12minute video the morning of the count to show what they are looking for and how the count is performed.

Volunteers can visit www.theycountwillyou.org/volunteer and select the deployment site of their choice.

In the Antelope Valley the deployment sites are Acton; Antelope Acres; Lake Los Angeles; Leona Valley/Lake Elizabeth; east, west, south, and central Lancaster, Lit

tlerock/Sun Village; and east and west Palmdale.

“A couple of our more farflung sites definitely need more volunteers,” Kirkconnell said.

For example there is great need for volunteers in places such as Acton, Lake Los Angeles, and Littlerock.

“We have a great need out there because there’s an underserved homeless community and we want to make sure they get the services they need,” Kirkconnell said.

Last year’s count showed the Valley’s homeless population decreased 16% to 3,203 people, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The Antelope Valley’s homeless pop ulation is about 6% of the Los Angeles County total.

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Valley Press files KEEPING COUNT — Volunteers Shirley Love, left, of Lancaster and Joshie Jacobs of Palmdale canvass a field east of Sierra Highway and north of Columbia Way (Avenue M) as they take a census of the homeless and their encampments during the 2018 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count in Lancaster.