The 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count Opt-In Program has Launched!
Greetings Neighborhood Councils…
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) has launched the 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count! The 2015 Homeless Count was the largest census in the country, covering 4000 square miles and benefitting from the support of more than 5,500 volunteers. In 2015 the Count discovered that at any given point-in-time approximately 41,174 residents are homeless in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, and 44,359 people experience homelessness in Los Angeles County. The data gathered from the Homeless Count is extremely valuable to our mission of ending homelessness. It supplies government agencies, service organizations and housing providers with a reliable estimate of the homeless population in the City and County of Los Angeles, including sub-regions such as Service Planning Areas (SPAs), Supervisorial Districts (SDs) and Council Districts (CDs) within the City of Los Angeles. It also provides an array of demographic information.
Many Neighborhood Councils participated in the 2015 Opt-In Program. The Opt-In Program gives cities, communities and other jurisdictions the opportunity to obtain locally-specific data at a high confidence level. Participants agree to full enumeration of every agreed-upon census tract within each City/Community. This provides more granular data and can substantially aid efforts to evaluate existing homeless services and plan for future measures to address local homelessness in each community. In 2015, 248 cities and communities enumerated all of their census tracts. Using the results from the LAHSA shelter and youth counts, cities are able to estimate a Point-in-Time number of the homeless families and individuals who are sheltered and unsheltered in their jurisdictions.
This year, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (EmpowerLA) has partnered with LAHSA to support the efforts of all Neighborhood Councils interested in volunteering for the Count. We have created a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a process for participation specifically for Neighborhood Councils:
1. A Neighborhood Council shall agendize and discuss at a public meeting that they agree to the terms of the Neighborhood Council Opt-In Program MOU and to participate in the 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.
2. A Neighborhood Council shall then forward its minutes or a resolution to EmpowerLA requesting that the Department enter this MOU on behalf of the Neighborhood Council.
a. Contact: Leyla Campos
Director of Neighborhood Council Operations
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
200 North Spring Street, Suite 2005
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-978-155
[email protected]
b. A Neighborhood Council shall submit a completed Board Vote Count Form showing the Neighborhood Council took action.
c. A Neighborhood Council will be notified within 3 business days once the MOU is completed on their behalf.
3. A Neighborhood Council participating in the Opt-In program will obtain volunteers to conduct a full enumeration (complete counting) of all unsheltered homeless persons in the agreed-upon census tracts within the Neighborhood Council’s boundary.
4. A Neighborhood Council, to the best of its ability will adhere to the following deadlines:
We look forward to partnering again with those Neighborhood Councils who participated in the 2015 Homeless Count, and developing new relationships with those who wish to participate for the first time.
A LAHSA Regional Coordinator has been assigned to each SPA within the Los Angeles Continuum. They can be reached at 213-683-3333 or you can contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions or needs further clarification.
Please visit the volunteer registration website, www.theycountwillyou.org to learn more about the
Opt-In Program and the 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Inyama
Homeless Count Manager
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority