Common Ground and Hollywood 4WRD have announced the results of last week’s efforts to identify and register homeless people living in Hollywood.

Kerry Morrison, executive director of the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance, records information during the homeless registry. (photo courtesy of the Hollywood BID)

The groups identified 257 individuals living on the street, 180 of whom allowed their photographs to be taken.

“We are delighted to have successfully interviewed 257 people,” said Kerry Morrison, executive director of the Hollywood Business Improvement District, which founded Hollywood 4WRD. “We don’t feel like we interviewed everyone. Each morning when we concluded the interviews, we still could have talked to more people. But this represents a huge amount of work by our eighty volunteers over three nights.”

The survey found that 110 people had health conditions associated with a high mortality risk, including 60 who were tri-morbid — that is, they suffered simultaneously from substance abuse, mental illness, and a chronic physical impairment. In addition, respondents reported 199 inpatient hospitalizations during the last year, and 244 emergency room visits during last three months, at an estimated total cost of $3.3. Only 37 percent of those surveyed had health insurance coverage.

The goal of the registration was to help connect those members of the homeless community most at risk with services. Towards that end, Morrison announced they had raised $62,000 to pay the initiation costs for housing 62 homeless members of the community, as soon as shelter becomes available.

“We’ve identified demand for which there is no ready supply, in terms of housing,” Morrison said. “But we came to believe that only by engaging and educating the community could we have a strong enough voice to press for what we needed.”

Morrison acknowledged Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, 3rd District, for his attention to the needs of Hollywood’s homeless population.

“Yaroslavsky is certainly a person who has his heart in this issue,” Morrison said. “I’m hoping he will feel emboldened to push for what we need because he’s seen such strong community support for this.”

Morrison met with Yaroslavsky on Wednesday to discuss ways in which the county could help find housing for some of the more vulnerable people the registry identified. In the meantime, Morrison said, her organization’s original goal was to find shelter for the 10 most vulnerable people who were identified, and get them quickly off the street. Two new homeless shelters are also planned for the Hollywood area.

“We have uncharted territory ahead,” Morrison said. “One thing that was really touching is I’ve already received a number of emails from volunteers who say they can’t stop thinking about the people they met, and want to know what they can do to help.”

To volunteer or donate, email Katie@hollywoodbid.org.