The third annual Malibu Homeless count, part of the overall LA County homeless count conducted by the LA County Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), was conducted last Thursday morning from 5-8 a.m. Preliminary numbers are out, but will not be finalized for a number of months.
“I am so happy to report that the homeless count last Thursday was successful and we had enough volunteers to help out,” Bianca Torrence, who organized the three Malibu counts so far, wrote in an email.
The preliminary 2017 results reported for Malibu indicate an increase in the number of homeless. The numbers counted are as follows: 54 individuals, 19 cars, 18 RVs, 14 tents, 22 make-shift tents, nine vans and five women at a Civic Center encampment.
The 2016 preliminary results were: 43 individuals, 11 cars, six RVs, 13 tents, 27 make-shift tents, three vans, one family and 11 youth.
LAHSA has various formulas that it will apply to these numbers in the coming months in order to come up with a final total for Malibu. Volunteers are told not to actually approach the tents, cars, vans and RVs in which homeless people are living and sleeping, so the government’s formulas make assumptions based on how many people are usually inside.
Torrence said that although 58 people registered to volunteer for the homeless count in Malibu, only 29 showed up. The volunteers included five Pepperdine students, one Rotary Club member (David Baird) and uniformed personnel from LA County Sheriff’s, State Parks and National Parks.
The volunteers work in groups of two or three with maps and clipboards, with each group covering an assigned geographic area. Terry Davis, a volunteer assigned to count homeless in the Civic Center area and nearby with Reverend Paul Elder and Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Winn, said it was an eye-opening experience to see where some of the homeless people she knows go to sleep.