County releases homeless count data
Shelter director says number doesn’t match up with current clientele
In data released this week, Los Angeles County’s Homeless Services Authority counted about 161 homeless individuals in the Santa Clarita Valley over three days in late January.
However, the county’s number is not representative of the homeless population in need in the SCV, said Peggy Edwards, the interim executive director of Bridge to Home.
Edwards, whose organization runs Santa Clarita’s seasonal homeless shelter, said the shelter is currently helping 375 clients with case management to move into permanent housing, a number higher than the LAHSA snapshot in time.
There are more homeless individuals on the streets unwilling to get help, she said, and others who may not have been counted because they are hidden from view in the SCV’s canyons.
Last year, the county data counted 242 homeless individuals in the SCV, but Edwards said that doesn’t mean the need has gone down.
“The LAHSA data doesn’t impact us in terms of funding,” she said. “So, if people think our homeless numbers going down means we don’t need a year-round shelter, that’s not true.”
Federal law requires the county to embark on an annual count of the homeless
population during a given time span. Even if the number is not concrete, it is still important for an indication of which areas are more densely populated with homeless people, said Dana Vanderford, homeless services deputy for 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office.
“We use it to determine our distribution of resources across the whole county,” she said. “It may not be perfect data, but it is a reliable source of data. It can tell us who’s experiencing homelessness when or how.”
Much of the resource distribution is contingent on the county’s eight service planning areas, Vanderford said. Areas that have higher concentrations of homeless people receive more funding for services.
The community-level data submitted to service providers is intended to provide them a better idea of who they’re serving, Vanderford said.
The January homeless count counted 45,043 individuals across the county, but people can fall into or exit homelessness at any time, she said.
Edwards said the yearly count is required by Congress, but Bridge to Home has its own numbers to
determine what its needs are.
“We measure ourselves on how many people we can house, and how many cases we manage,” she said. “When the shelter is open, we have 60 beds open and we have about 20-40 people each night for Feeding It Forward during the offseason. We base any need for funding off that.”
The county is working on creating a rolling average that is more consistent of how many homeless people are in each service area, Vanderford said.