I participated in the homeless count this year, but my team did not find any homeless people. The place we were assigned was mainly in a wealthy residential area with little to no public space, so we were not surprised that we did not find anyone. The previous time I volunteered, which was in 2020, we found no one on the street, but only in cars.
From Feb. 22 to Feb. 24, the County of Los Angeles held its 2022 homeless count. This was the first time the county held a homeless count in two years, as the 2021 count was canceled due to the pandemic. The 2022 homeless count was originally going to be from Jan. 24 to Jan. 26, but was postponed again because of the pandemic.
“While we work to ensure an accurate Homeless Count, we cannot ignore the surging number of positive COVID-19 cases across our region,” said Heidi Marston, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, in a press release on LAHSA’s website. “Even with safety precautions such as moving training online, developing outdoor deployment sites, and keeping households together, moving forward with a count in January places our unhoused neighbors, volunteers, staff, and the accuracy of the Count at risk.”
The purpose of the count is to support applications for federal funding by proving how many homeless people live in different areas. As of 2020, the count said there were 66,436 homeless people living in the county, with 2,257 living in Council District 15. In San Pedro, there were 575 homeless people, which was a decrease from the previous year, when the count found 614 homeless people. The 2020 count found 226 homeless people in vehicles, 204 in tents or makeshift shelters and 60 living on the street. In addition, there were 83 in temporary or transitional housing.
According to LAHSA’s training video, saying that you found zero homeless people is a perfectly acceptable answer. It states that it is important for LAHSA to know which areas do not have homeless people.
But just because we were unable to find homeless people doesn’t necessarily mean there are no homeless people on the streets of San Pedro or in CD 15. The last homeless count was before the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, and it is yet to be seen what effect the pandemic will have on people losing their homes. To be fair, the LA County Board of Supervisors recently extended the eviction moratorium until the end of 2022.
There are also several homeless shelters in CD 15, including two in San Pedro, the bridge home shelter run by the city, and another shelter run by the county. However, the residents of those shelters will still be counted for the homeless count, as these are temporary housing.
A bigger problem for the shelters in CD 15 is COVID-19, as they have had to reduce their number of occupants to prevent the spread of the virus. It hasn’t always worked, and many have had outbreaks.
Alexis Lauro, a representative of Councilman Joe Buscaino’s office, said that the bridge home in San Pedro had 32 men and 23 women when she spoke at the CD 15 working group on homeless meeting on Feb. 1. However, she said that quarantine had just been lifted, and they had 19 intakes that day, meaning that more people were coming back in.
Lauro also said that in the bridge home in Wilmington, there were 32 women and 35 men. It was still under quarantine, and had 75 residents there, which is a reduced number.
The tiny home village in Wilmington had 38 men and 24 women, Lauro said. The residents were also under quarantine when she spoke, as they had recently had a positive case. At the Watts bridge home, there were 38 men and 30 women, and they were under quarantine as well.
At that same meeting, Lauro said that the first signs banning homeless people from sleeping in certain areas were finalized, and would be near the tiny homes village in Wilmington and the county shelter in San Pedro. These are specific sites near homeless shelters or facilities, and homeless people are not allowed to sit or sleep within 1,000 feet of them. So far, 11 of these sites have been approved in CD 15. In October 2021, Buscaino pushed for 161 more sites in CD 15, mainly near schools and parks, where homeless people would not be able to sleep within 500 feet. However, the city council has not approved these yet.
This is not the only thing Buscaino has done to try to ban homeless people. He is trying to get a ballot measure that would ban homeless people from camping in public areas all over the city, while also making it a priority to have more emergency temporary housing. The city council rejected this measure in November 2021, but Buscaino is now trying to get it approved by gathering 65,000 signatures to place it on the November 2022 ballot.
Living in San Pedro
Francis Romero, a 67-year-old San Pedro resident who lives in Section 8 housing, was homeless for more than four years prior to moving into her apartment. She stayed on 6th Street and Gaffey, near the Jack in the Box.
Now she lives in an apartment she has been in for three years. Before that, she lived in a senior citizen center. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health helped her get a Section 8 voucher.
“I had to go there, because I was out here on the street all stressed out and stuff,” Romero said. “I’m handicapped, and I have an animal, and it was hard for me out there.”
It took Romero a year to be able to get her housing voucher.
“It takes longer for some,” Romero said. “I think it took longer because I had four case workers switched on me.”
Once she had the voucher, it still wasn’t easy to find an apartment.
“A lot of people don’t want to accept it no more, because of the way people are,” Romero said. “When they move in, they destroy it. … They don’t treat it like they really appreciate it. Not all the people either, but some.”
The building she currently lives in was the best option she could find. Even then, it’s not ideal, because she’s handicapped and the entrance to the building has stairs.
“I got to get someone to help me pull my walker down, and back up,” Romero said.
If there is no one to help her go up and down the stairs, she doesn’t leave the building.
While the senior citizen building was not in San Pedro, she returned to San Pedro when given the choice.
“I got this because I know San Pedro,” Romero said. “San Pedro’s been my town all my life … I had to go to the doctors and stuff, everything was over here for me. So I came back here.”