Monrovia Needs Volunteers to Assist With Homeless Count

Accurate counts help deploy resources for those experiencing homelessness. – Courtesy photo / Facebook, @lahsa.org

The City of Monrovia will once again be participating in the 2019 Point-in-Time Homeless Count, an annual event coordinated by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. This year, the count is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

On that evening, volunteers will be surveying Monrovia along with other areas of the San Gabriel Valley to determine how many people in the area are homeless. Ultimately, the data collected is used to better design programs and deploy resources to serve the homeless population.

There are four components to the count and each plays a role in understanding the state of homelessness in LA County. The components are demographic surveys, shelter and institutional counts, youth count, and street count. The demographic survey collects all demographic information of those experiencing homelessness. The shelter count tallies everyone experiencing homelessness that can be found in shelters, transitional housing, hospitals and correctional facilities. The youth count gathers information on unaccompanied and unsheltered youth, and young families under the age of 24 that are experiencing homelessness. The street count is a visual tally of everyone without shelter, which is the component completed by volunteers.

On the evening of Jan. 22 any interested individual is being asked to arrive at the Monrovia Community Center (119 W. Palm Ave.) at 8 p.m. A volunteer training and orientation session will occur at that time and representatives from the City’s Public Services Department and Police Department will be on hand to address questions and concerns. The actual count is expected to begin at 9 p.m. You can pre-register as a volunteer online at TheyCountWillYou.org.