Homeless is a county issue, all of us must help find a solution

On Friday we reported that the Imperial Valley Continuum of Care Council, formerly known as the Imperial County Homeless Task Force, released its numbers for the 2017 Pointin-Time Count and Survey.

The count revealed that 1,071 people were counted as homeless in the Imperial County, a misleading jump from 2016 which resulted in a count of 380. Why misleading?

This year’s count has a significant increase in volunteers participating in the count from last year, a different method of counting Slab City residents was implemented and a better organized method of counting was used. So don’t think the county’s homeless population more-than doubled overnight, the IVCCC had a more organized method this year.

However, there obviously is an issue that our county needs to address and it needs to take efforts of elected officials, businesses, education facilities, philanthropists and community members to help reduce those numbers by facing the reasons why those people are homeless in the first place.

Of those surveyed, 32.6 percent stated they were homeless because of unemployment. The only other answer that those surveyed gave that resulted in a higher percentage (36.9 percent) was “other” which doesn’t provide a specific reason.

It’s no surprise the majority that are homeless are so because of unemployment.

In the April report on employment from the state Employment Development Department, the unemployment rate in March in the county was 19.2 percent, down from February at 19.9 percent.

The rate was 21.2 percent in March 2016. The majority of the jobs created were in farming stated the EDD report.

The next highest reason for homelessness reported was disability with 13.2 percent.

That was followed by substance abuse at 11.6 percent, by choice with 9.4 percent, mental illness with 7.9 percent and domestic violence with 2.6 percent. There were other categories as well with lower percentages.

Of those surveyed, 6.35 percent said they currently are employed.

So it’s no surprise the major issue is jobs in the Valley.

There is a proverb that says “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

We believe that focusing on bringing jobs to the Valley will not only decrease our unemployment rate, but our homeless rate by encouraging them to get back on their feet and earn a living.

“One of the things I believe the Imperial Valley community can do is to get the business community involved while also providing training that will prepare individuals for gainful employment,” said IVCCC Program Coordinator Kenneth R. Woods.