County workers OK’d to be paid for annual count

San Diego County employees can be paid if they choose next month to help tally the region’s homeless population.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to let staffers be on the clock if they participate in the federally mandated point-in-time count.

The census is scheduled for Jan. 25.

“It continues to be a way for us to collect the data that we need to be able to help our unsheltered population,” said Board Chair Nora Vargas, who introduced the measure along with Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer.

A spokesperson confirmed that the county has previously adopted the same approach.

Last year. there were 171 employees amid about 1,600 total volunteers with the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

The tally is generally acknowledged to be an undercount.

Hundreds of volunteers spread throughout the county before sunrise looking for tents, sleeping bags and people sleeping in cars, and a host of obstacles can cause residents to be missed, whether it’s a locked gate or heavy rain.

But the count is nonetheless a barometer of the scope of the crisis and helps drive a host of policy and funding decisions.

This year’s tally found more than 10,200 homeless people countywide, including nearly 5,200 living outdoors or in vehicles.

The task force also measures homelessness by looking at how many people ask for help from local nonprofits and service providers.

That data show that more than 14,200 people became homeless for the first just during a recent yearlong period that ended in September. Fewer than 8,900 were housed during that same window, meaning about 6 homeless people found a roof for every 10 who ended up in a shelter, vehicle or on the street.

The vote was also one of the first official actions taken by Monica Montgomery Steppe, who was sworn in as the county’s newest supervisor on Tuesday.