By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

January 15, 2015--A decrease in homeless people counted on Santa Monica’s streets and in local shelters last year — the first drop in the numbers in five years — is a hopeful sign for the 2015 count coming up in two weeks, OPCC’s executive director said Wednesday.

Last January, teams of surveyors counted 742 homeless people in Santa Monica, a 5 percent decrease from 2013. From 2010 up until 2014, the number of homeless people counted in the annual survey had steadily risen.

“I think it’s huge,” OPCC Executive Director John Maceri said. “And I don’t think people really understand or appreciate that.”

Considering the many obstacles homeless people face—from overcoming drug, alcohol and mental health problems in a majority of cases to joblessness to local economic barriers like the lack of affordable housing—even a 5 percent decline in the Santa Monica’s homeless population “is no small feat,” Maceri said.

“The fact that Santa Monica has been able to significantly reduce the numbers at a time when the numbers are spiking in other areas of the county is not insignificant,” said Meceri,

This year’s homeless count in Santa Monica on Jan. 28 coincides with Los Angeles County’s biannual count, which in 2013 tallied more than 39,400 homeless men, women and children, an increase of 0.1 percent from 2011, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority figures show.

In Santa Monica the reversal in the homeless count numbers could be evidence that increasingly coordinated private and public initiatives aimed at ending homelessness in the city are finally paying off, Maceri said.

Santa Monica officials agree.

One city report last year showed that Santa Monica’s “Action Plan to Address Homelessness,” adopted in 2008, had placed 124 homeless people into permanent housing.

Another 147 people found homes through the city’s Project Homecoming, which reunites homeless people with family and friends who can provide housing and support, the report said.

 “We’re thrilled with the decrease shown in last year’s numbers, especially given the economic climate of the past few years,” Deidre Mumford, an administrative analyst with the city’s Human Services department, said Wednesday.

“We’re looking forward to this year’s count, especially the countywide count, to see how we compare. We’re hoping the decrease continues,” she said.

Apart from calculating the scope of homelessness across the county, the biannual results are used by cities to apply for federal homeless services grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In Santa Monica, officials conduct an annual count that’s more comprehensive than the county’s, surveying every census tract in the city. Along with the overall 5 percent drop in the numbers last year, the 2014 count found a 40 percent drop in the number of homeless people in the Downtown area, city numbers show.

Counting the number of homeless people on any given night can never provide a complete picture of the problem, Maceri said, only a “point-in-time” snapshot.
But an annual count taken at the same time each year does provide “good base line data and good year-over-year comparisons,” he added.

He believes last year’s reversal of the upward trend in homelessness in Santa Monica is the result of increasing collaboration between the various local homeless services agencies and the city.

 “Everyone is sort of relentless in their doing-whatever-it-takes approach to end homelessness, and I think we’re seeing the results of those sustained efforts over time,” said Meceri.

“My hope is that we’re going to see the numbers continue to decline. I hope and think that that’s where will be. We’ll know in a few weeks, but my general sense, based on what I’ve seen, is that the trend will continue.”