Homeless Count Goes Off Without a Hitch

According to the City’s Homeless Count Coordinator for the Pasadena Partnership to End Homelessness with the City of Pasadena, the first night of the count went off without a hitch.

Dan Davidson told Pasadena Now there were no logistical or security issues on Tuesday night when volunteers spread out into assigned zones to count the City’s homeless population.

“No, we had none. [I’m] thankful for that,” Dan Davidson told Pasadena Now.

Volunteers in teams of 4-5  members covered assigned zones across the City to help conduct a snapshot in time of the City’s homeless population over two sessions – an evening session on Tuesday from 8 to 10 p.m. and a Wednesday morning session from 6 to 8 a.m. 

Data collected during this one-night effort is reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and plays a vital role in securing funding and planning effective services and programs.

“Our teams are assigned a zone,” Davidson said. “When the teams arrive for their shift, they gather together and then they submit a check-in. So we know they’re all there and we get a geolocation for that.”

As the team covers its zone, they conduct the survey with the unhoused neighbors willing to engage. 

An observation survey is done on the unhoused that is unwilling to participate.

“We watch that data as it comes through. So we get to see it live and where those surveys are being completed. Our homeless count planning team will call and check in on a  survey that’s been done that we want more information about, just so that we’re able to double-check everything as we go. 

“If a question comes up from a volunteer, they’ll reach out to us and we take that message and phone call right away to respond and make sure that all the data coming through is accurate as it can be as it’s live. So yeah, that’s the main,” Davidson said. 

“And then once the timeframe is done at that point, then we have the teams checkout, make sure everyone is safe and accounted for.”

The last count in 2023 identified approximately 556 homeless residents in Pasadena.

The count begins months before the team goes out.

Nearly 200 volunteers are recruited and trained.

“We take time to train the volunteers and then to organize them into teams that cover zones that make sure we cover every street of Pasadena,” Davidson said.  

“So we take the city of Pasadena and break it up into different zones. And then it’s a citywide effort, so it’s not just volunteers. It also includes our outreach workers, the service providers that do outreach to our unhoused neighbors, the police department, which has the HOPE team and the park safety team. It also includes our vaccine strike team to provide vaccines on the spot when requested. And it also includes youth service providers that help us make sure we don’t miss any youth that might be experiencing homelessness.”

Davidson said that on Tuesday more vaccines were given for COVID and the flu.

“The new highlight this year was that the bad weather shelter was open. We haven’t had that open in three years. And so having that open was a great resource to provide direct referrals if someone was looking for a shelter, they were invited last night if they wanted to get to the bad weather shelter. We have resource cards with that information that I passed out. And then we are providing slight direct assistance with the cold weather kits that each volunteer carry and hands out. And those are kits full of hats and gloves, hand warmers, blanket, like a emergency blanket, some food items. So those are also delivered directly.”

The distribution of sanitation or cold weather kits to homeless individuals has been an integral part of the count. 

These kits usually contain essential items that can provide immediate relief to individuals living on the streets, including toiletries, socks, gloves, and other necessities that cater to the basic hygiene and warmth needs of the homeless population to ensure that there are protocols in place for volunteers to contact authorities if they encounter any safety concerns.

The count will be tallied and released later this year.