Palos Verdes Seeks Volunteers For 2024 LA County Homeless Count

PALOS VERDES, CA - With Los Angeles County’s annual Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count fast approaching, Palos Verdes officials are looking for volunteers.

The massive count, which covers over 4,000 square miles, is scheduled to start on Jan. 23 and will travel throughout the county until Jan 25.

The massive undertaking will require thousands of volunteers split into 8,000 shifts throughout the count. Volunteers will be split into groups of four to “tally the number of unsheltered individuals, tents, vehicles, and make-shift shelters they see in their assigned census tract,” according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Locals can register to volunteer at this link. Individual volunteers will be paired with teams, or volunteers can register in groups. Volunteers are generally needed for between three and four hours, including a brief training. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old.

“The annual Homeless Count helps us better understand the needs of our neighbors experiencing homelessness so that we can align our resources to best address those needs,” Stephen David Simon, Interim Executive Director of LAHSA, said in a statement. “We need thousands of people across the County to join us in January to ensure as accurate a Count as possible.”

In 2023, the LAHSA opted to provide breakdowns per service planning area, or SPA, rather than a city-by-city breakdown. In SPA 8, which includes the entire South Bay from the Harbor Area to El Segundo to Inglewood, a total of 5,370 people were counted as unsheltered in 2023.

Last year’s homeless count estimated there were 75,518 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County, a 9 percent jump from last year, according to LAHSA. It’s a far cry from the 25.9 percent increase between 2018 and 2020. The county saw a 62 percent increase in shelter beds between 2019 and 2022. The results of this year’s count will likely be released in late spring or early summer 2023.