LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) has opened registration for the 2024 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. In 2024, the Homeless Count will occur during the evening on January 23, 24, and 25. Volunteers can register for the Homeless Count at TheyCountWillYou.org.
“The annual Homeless Count is an important tool to understand where our neighbors experiencing homelessness are located and to know where services are needed most, so we can help as many people as possible come home,” said Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum, Chief Executive Officer of LAHSA. “However, we can’t do it alone. We need thousands of people to come out and count as many census tracts as possible so we can deliver accurate results this spring.”
In 2024, thousands of volunteers will spread out across the 4,000 square miles of Los Angeles County in late January to conduct the Unsheltered Count. Traveling in small groups, volunteers will tally the number of unsheltered individuals, tents, vehicles, and make-shift shelters they see in their assigned census tract.
The Unsheltered Count will begin on Tuesday, January 23, in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Volunteers in East and West Los Angeles will count on Wednesday, January 24. Finally, the Count will wrap up Thursday, January 25, in the Antelope Valley, Metro, and South Los Angeles.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires a biennial point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness. In 2016, LAHSA started hosting the Homeless Count annually to provide improved analysis regarding the trends of people experiencing homelessness. Government agencies, including LAHSA, use the data collected during the Homeless Count to develop strategies to end homelessness and determine where funding and resources will do the most good.
LAHSA depends on an enormous volunteer base to conduct the Homeless Count. This year, the agency seeks 8,000 volunteers to cover the entire Continuum of Care.
2024 will mark the second year that volunteers will use Esri’s Homeless Point in Time App to tally the number of people and makeshift dwellings they find during their count. As LAHSA continues to use technology to make the Homeless Count as accurate as possible, this year, it is piloting geofencing within the Point in Time App to alert volunteers when they have moved outside their assigned census tract’s boundaries.
The annual Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count includes the Youth Count and the Housing Inventory Count. LAHSA will conduct the Youth Count from January 22 through 31 and the Housing Inventory Count on January 24.