The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion Tuesday to seek a formal exemption from conducting the 2021 homeless count.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires local homeless authorities to conduct a Point-in-Time (PIT) count of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in January of every other year in odd-numbered years.
In addition to counting unsheltered people experiencing homelessness, the count also includes those experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and Safe Havens on a single night.
In Los Angeles County the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) has carried out the counts since 2016 and would typically be in the planning stage for their 2021 count at this time, according to county officials.
“LAHSA’s annual PIT counts have involved the participation of service providers, local municipalities and agencies, and thousands of volunteers,” wrote Supervisor Hilda Solis in her motion to seek an exception to the 2021 count. “Moving ahead with the PIT counts would be a risky and challenging activity at best and a dangerous, superspreader event in the worst-case scenario, quickly infecting a high number of people with a very contagious and deadly disease.”
In addition to health and safety concerns related to conducting the count, Solis also cited the need to concentrate resources directed at homelessness to provide the most essential services in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our essential workers, which include homeless service providers, have exhausted their capacity to divert their focus from their current work of providing life-saving services to vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness,” Solis wrote.
The motion specifically calls for county Chief Executive Officer Calia Zavala to send a letter signed by the board of supervisors to HUD in support of LAHSA’s request for an exception to the 2021 homeless count.
The original motion from Solis is available here.
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