LOS ANGELES — Facing criticism from the LA City Council for possible undercounting of the homeless population, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority announced changes to how it plans to conduct this year’s tally. The agency said Wednesday that it will hire a demographer and two data scientists to optimize its analysis and will replace the counting app it used last year with a vendor more experienced in developing homeless count apps.
LAHSA said it will also develop a new quality assurance process that includes staff members at each deployment site and will use backup paper maps and tally sheets in case volunteers have problems with internet connectivity.
The agency acknowledged last year that it had received reports of user and technology errors resulting from a lack of training and poor internet connectivity during the 2022 count. At that time, 69,144 people were experiencing homelessness nightly in LA County — a 4.1% increase from the previous count in 2020. Almost 42,000 people were homeless in the City of Los Angeles — a 1.7% increase.
The 2023 count is scheduled to take place later this month and includes tallies of unsheltered individuals and children as well as people living in interim and permanent supportive housing. The unsheltered count begins Jan. 24 in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, followed by East and West Los Angeles on Jan. 25 and South LA, Metro LA and the Antelope Valley January 26.
The youth count will run from Jan. 21-31, while the count of those in interim and permanent supportive housing will take place on a single day: Jan. 25. LAHSA is looking for volunteers to fill more than 8,000 shifts for those dates.
“The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is an important resource for understanding the scope and nature of homelessness in Los Angeles County,” LAHSA Interim Executive Director Stephen David Simon said in a statement Wednesday. “LAHSA continues to refine and improve our approach in the interest of a more accurate count with greater stakeholder involvement.”
LAHSA has been conducting its homeless count since 2016 as part of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Requirement that requires it biennially. Responding to COVID concerns in 2022, the agency said it modified its procedures to limit person-to-person contact and improve volunteer safety “which created additional challenges to conducting the count.”
LAHSA’s announcement of improvements comes a day after the LA City Council voted to confirm LA Mayor Bass’s state of emergency declaration on homelessness for six months. The 2022-2023 fiscal year budget for the city includes an unprecedented $1.16 billion to combat homelessness — up from $966 million the previous year.