This week thousands of Angelenos will face a daunting task: counting their unhoused neighbors.
The L.A. region’s annual homeless count, which will take place Tuesday through Thursday, comes on the heels of heightened concerns about its accuracy.
Last year, some volunteers reported struggling with the smartphone app used to count people experiencing homelessness. Then, once the 2022 count results were released, some L.A. councilmembers were taken aback by huge spikes in certain districts, coupled with hard-to-believe drops in others.
Under a settlement reached last year in a federal court case, the city must provide shelter for 60% of the unhoused people in each council district. Some councilmembers felt the 2022 count failed to reflect progress they’d made. They also wondered if decreases in some districts stemmed from shelters being opened in others.
In response, the L.A. City Council introduced a motion last September, calling for city staff to explore conducting a “multi-year audit” of previous homeless counts. The council also voted to consider a third party to carry out future surveys, instead of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA.
The motion, introduced by former Council President Nury Martínez, was seconded by council members Kevin de León and Paul Krekorian. Not long after this motion, racist and derogatory recordings involving Martínez and de Léon were leaked, and the council was in turmoil. Then came winter recess.
Edwin Gipson, the assistant city administrative officer who oversees homelessness, told LAist that the multi-year audit is still pending. City staff will also conduct a review of the 2023…
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