L.A.’s annual homeless count relies on volunteers. This week, nearly 6,000 Angelenos helped count people experiencing homelessness throughout the region.
The count is a major undertaking that’s required across the country by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2022, local volunteers struggled with a glitchy phone app, leading to concerns about the L.A. count’s accuracy. Under a settlement reached last year in federal court, the city of L.A. must provide shelter for 60% of unhoused people.
The results of this year’s annual homeless count will test the progress toward that goal.
We joined volunteers on one night of this year's homeless count. Here's how the night unfolded.
It’s Wednesday, Jan. 25. About 150 volunteers gather at the Westwood Presbyterian Church, which has served as a volunteer deployment site since 2005. Because the church is less than a mile away from UCLA, volunteers are often local students.
As the volunteers line up to check in, they grab some coffee and a snack.
L.A. City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath thank volunteers for pitching in and emphasize that the work can’t be done without their support.
This year’s count is over and results are expected to be released by early summer. For updates on how to help with the 2024 count sign up here.
LAHSA also offers other volunteer opportunities, including for Angelenos who have experienced homelessness and want to share their insights.
Steve Sann, chairman of the Westwood Community Council and co-chair of the event, checks to make sure that everyone has downloaded a new phone app for the count designed to work with or without cell reception connectivity. Then, he goes over the rules for the night.
Sann says it’s crucial not to disturb people experiencing homelessness during the count. “Don’t shine your flashlights on people … it’s rude.”
He also tells volunteers to take their time to cover their assigned areas thoroughly. “This is not a race,” he says. “I don’t want to see you back here in 35 minutes.”
The volunteers divide into groups of three to five. At least one person per group gets a bright yellow vest and a flashlight. Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority staff also give each team a paper map. Before heading out, the volunteers huddle to decide whether to cover their routes on foot, or to share a car.
LAist joins a group of four volunteers to shadow their night. We meet Megan Imundo, a doctoral student in the psychology department at UCLA, and Emilie Nordhues, a doctoral student in the university’s Near Eastern languages and cultures department. For both, it’s their first time helping with the count.
Imundo says she knows the data they gather will inform how officials and advocates allocate resources, “It seems like a really straightforward and important way to contribute to solutions to the crises in our neighborhoods.”
Nordhues says she’s seen the challenges people living on the streets in Westwood Village experience firsthand and she’d been looking for a “more material, impactful way to help out.”
Also here is Dylan Sittig, a staffer in L.A. City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s office, and former Los Angeles Director of City Planning Con Howe. Sittig and Howe have participated in the count multiple times.
Sittig says Yaroslavsky’s office assigned staff members to join counts in different parts of the neighborhood to get a “comprehensive picture” of homelessness in Westwood.
The volunteers decide to cover their assigned route on foot.
As the volunteers make their way through the avenues that cross Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards, they pay close attention to houses of worship and stairwells — places where people may be laying down to rest.
The volunteers also walk quietly through every alley. When they see a person experiencing homelessness, they make a gesture to Nordhues, who’s managing the app.
In addition to tallying the number of unhoused people, the app also keeps track of the volunteers’ progress, highlighting areas they still need to check. For backup, Imundo also has the app running on her phone.
After checking to make sure that they covered their assigned tract, the volunteers head back to the church, scanning around in case they detect anyone new. When they notice one more person sleeping in front of the Westwood Branch Library, Nordhues updates the tally.
It’s been over an hour since the group started counting. The temperature is 51 degrees. So far, the volunteers have passed 10 people experiencing homelessness. The work is silent for the most part. The volunteers talk to each other but not the people they’re counting, most of whom are asleep on the ground. Some of them use cardboard to ward off the cold.
The volunteers wrap up. The total count for this group is 12. In total, the volunteers walked just over two miles. They thank one another before going their separate ways.
If I were in this position, where would I be choosing to sleep?
Imundo reflects. She takes a public bus to UCLA every day, but normally tunes out. The count, she says, forced her to really look at every nook and cranny in her neighborhood. She also found herself wondering: “If I were in this position, where would I be choosing to sleep?”
Nordhues says the night went well – she had no trouble with the app. “It worked really smoothly,” she says. “I thought it was pretty easy to follow.”
She says she’ll likely volunteer in next year’s count, even though participating gave her “an odd feeling.”
“You know, you want to find people because it's important to track the numbers accurately so that the city has a sense of how many people there are and how many resources to give to the issue. But it's also, like, you don't want to find people, because those are people who are unhoused and in a very treacherous, unstable situation.”
