County Officials Put Final Touches on Long-Awaited Homeless Report

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

October 24 -- Officials who helped conduct a massive headcount of Los Angeles' overall homeless population last January say they are on the verge of releasing a second set of numbers that zooms in on cities like Santa Monica.

The 100-plus page report -– which is now slated for a mid-November release -- is expected to help cities better plan and coordinate a strategy to combat homelessness in the county, where an estimated 91,000 people sleep on the street each night.

"The number crunching is done," said Mitchell Netburn, director of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Agency (LAHSA) that spearheaded the study. "At this point, we're just doing the final edit on the report."

While an initial set of numbers came out for the County as a whole in June (see related story), the upcoming report -- which has been delayed for nearly three months -- will further break down those findings, giving cities, supervisors and council members a better handle on the task at hand.

For cities such as Santa Monica, which has grappled for years with the problem of homelessness, those figures couldn't come soon enough.

"We're very anxious to see the numbers so we can better develop a strategy to service the homeless," said Santa Monica official Mona Miyasato who helps coordinate homeless services for the City.

"The delay hasn't caused the City to miss out on any funding,” she said. “Still, we would like to see how Santa Monica compares with other cities."

Scores of other cities participating in the LAHSA initiative to end homelessness in greater Los Angeles by 2015 -- known as "Bring LA Home" -- will also find the November report figures enlightening, according to Netburn.

"The numbers will help "Bring LA Home" come up with a strategy, but their delay has not caused a delay in "Bring LA Home," he said. “If it goes much longer without the numbers, though, then it could affect” the initiative.

Still, while the release of the report is important for cities developing plans to fight homelessness, Netburn stressed the importance of not rushing the findings.

"Lots of eyes are going to pass over this -- academics, service providers, elected officials, the press,” Netburn said. “It explains our methodology and how we came up with the numbers we did. So we want to make it as accessible as possible."

Timing is also an issue, he said.

"November tends to be the month when the press traditionally covers homeless issues," said Netburn. "Come the first rain in November I can guarantee I'll receive three or four calls by reporters asking when the shelters will open."

Peter Connerly, vice president of Applied Survey Research (ASR) -- which was contracted by LAHSA to evaluate the data -- described the project as a huge undertaking and was not surprised by the delays.

"To be frank, for a study of this magnitude, spending nearly $300,000, and the amount of time it's taken to finish is not a long time,” Connerly said. “That's the bottom line."

Weaving through a bureaucratic maze of social service agencies and collecting additional information to make sure one person was not being counted twice was one reason for the delay.

"Collecting emergency shelter data, thought to take two to three weeks to receive, ended up taking twice as long," said Connerly. "Then we had to make sure it was not the same person applying several times to different agencies."

Connerly's firm had similar problems gathering crime statistics and comparing that data to social service information.

Another obstacle to overcome was that the data -- which was partially collected by census tracts which do not always correspond to City and other boundaries -- had to be reorganized to fit into city, supervisor and city council districts.

"We had to do a good bit of looking at land-use and zoning to match up the numbers in ways that would be useful for everyone," said Connerly.

Proofing the findings also added time.

"One of the concerns we had is that this work hasn't been done in over ten years,” Connerly said. “We wanted to vet the numbers and get as many people comfortable with them as possible."

Just how LAHSA will unveil its findings has not been decided, however, the information will likely be released to the press, then presented to city officials at public meetings, Netburn said.

"We will meet with anyone who wants to meet as scheduling permits, of coarse," said Netburn. "I mean if all 85 cities want to meet on the same day, it will be a problem, but otherwise yes."

Santa Monica will, no doubt, request such a presentation, said Miyasato.

"We will defiantly be asking for such a meeting when the numbers are released," she said.