Local leaders are recruiting residents to volunteer for the annual homeless count later this month. The results will help guide the county’s efforts to curb the epidemic, especially now that local officials are equipped with additional funding authorized by voters during the past two elections.

“We’re only weeks away,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl tweeted on Jan. 2. “This work is critical in gathering up-to-date data and demographic info to help us better address the needs of our homeless neighbors.”

Results from this year’s homeless count will help county and city officials guide their efforts to combat the epidemic. (Park Labrea News/Beverly Press file photo)

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority conducts the count each year to get an estimate of the number of homeless people throughout the county, giving city and county officials a better idea of how to allocate resources.

The county’s goal is to exceed the 8,000 registered volunteers who signed up last year.

“L.A. County residents are up to this herculean task,” Ridley-Thomas said in November. “I was one of the volunteers who helped count around Leimert Park in January and I hope to volunteer again next January. The most recent homeless count estimated there are almost 58,000 people homeless in Los Angeles County on any given night. In a county as prosperous as ours, it is a moral outrage and a humanitarian crisis that even one person has to sleep on the streets at night.”

The figure is from the 2017 homeless count results. In Beverly Hills last year, 49 volunteers counted 22 homeless individuals in the city, an increase from the 14 counted in 2016. There were 105 in West Hollywood, including 92 living on the street.

According to a homeless needs assessment and demographic survey conducted by the city of West Hollywood, the city’s homeless population is an average age of 40.6 years old, younger than the average homeless person throughout most of the rest of the county. Approximately 47.7 percent the city’s homeless are white, and homeless people in West Hollywood were more likely to identify as transgender male to female. Approximately 31 percent identified as a member of the LGBT community, compared with 6.3 percent throughout the rest of the county.

The results showed that West Hollywood’s homeless were more likely to have been involved in domestic violence or intimate partner abuse, and they were more likely to have encountered the legal system in their lives.

“We need to address this issue with compassion for these folks,” said Capt. Sergio Aloma, of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station. “We fully understand as a law enforcement agency that there are homeless folks that do commit crimes, and we’re not saying that we’re not going to address that and we’re not going to be there if you call to address it.”

The proliferation of homeless people throughout the county led to a hepatitis A outbreak earlier this year. Los Angeles City Councilmen Mike Bonin, 11th District, and Jose Huizar, 14th District, introduced a motion to fund emergency portable toilets. Huizar’s district has the most homeless individuals of all 15 districts in Los Angeles, and Bonin’s district ranks fifth in most homeless individuals, according to LAHSA. The 13th District’s homeless population ranked third highest. Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, 13th District, partnered with LAHSA to reach the district’s most vulnerable constituents. He also set up regular cleanups around encampments, including steam-cleaning the sidewalks.

With a new sales tax made possible by Measure H, approved by voters in March, the county has also opened 250 additional recuperative care beds this year, bringing the total to 432. County officials called the addition a major milestone in the Measure H-funded Homeless Initiative, which seeks to end homelessness, improve health outcomes and reduce hospital emergency room visits.

“Recuperative care is a key area for allocation of Measure H funds,” said Phil Ansell, director of the county’s Homeless Initiative, in a statement. “In partnership with nonprofits, business, faith and community leaders, the county will end homelessness for 45,000 families and individuals within five years, and through prevention strategies, keep another 30,000 families and individuals housed who would otherwise have become homeless.“

For information about becoming a volunteer, visit theycountwillyou.org.