The annual homeless count is underway, but one population that\u2019s hard to count? Families<\/p>\n
Last year, homelessness declined overall in the region, but not for families with children. And service providers say even thatwas an undercount.<\/p>\n
Volunteers are fanning out across the region tonight for the last night of L.A.\u2019s annual homeless count to get a census of the unhoused population. But advocates say there\u2019s one population that\u2019s especially hard to get an accurate count of: families.<\/p>\n
The way the count works is that volunteers count who they can physically see on the streets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Homeless services providers say that doesn\u2019t work with families because families don\u2019t usually experience homelessness out on the streets. Instead, they are more likely to be living discreetly in their cars, in motels or doubled up in suboptimal units.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe know they’re there. Yhey’re our clients. We see them when they come, and they are referred [to us] by the schools, by 211, by the faith community. We see them but not through the count,\u201d said Constanza Pachon, CEO of The Whole Child, an agency that serves families in southeast L.A. County.<\/p>\n Learn the ins and outs behind L.A.’s housing crisis.<\/p>\n Sign up for Building Your Block, a seven-issue newsletter course from LAist that explains the obstacles around housing development in L.A. and what you can do to make things better.<\/p>\n What is the situation for unhoused families in the LA area?<\/p>\n Last year, homelessness declined overall in the region, but not for families with children. And service providers say even that was an undercount. In the region where Pachon serves, the count estimated a total of 265 families<\/a> experiencing homelessness, but the agency serves about 2,500 families a year.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been homeless counts in the previous years in which we don’t see any families at all,\u201d said Pachon, whose agency is running a site for the count in East L.A.<\/p>\n