Volunteers urgently needed for LA's annual homeless count

Newsom directs additional funds for homelessness

Governor Gavin Newsom announced nearly $420 million are headed to LA, San Francisco, and San Diego to help fight homelessness. This comes just days before the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's annual count of those who are unhoused. 

LOS ANGELES - On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced $419 million will be sent to Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego to help fight homelessness. 

It comes just days before the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's annual count of those who are unhoused. 

The authority says it's in need of more volunteers for that count. Every year, L.A.H.S.A. facilitates a count of people who are unhoused. It helps them collect important information that they share with the federal government every other year. 

What they're saying:

"Volunteers are gathering data that is really important for us to be able to look at who's out there understand the population and then also help policymakers decide things like where should the resources go?" said Paul Rubenstein of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. 

The count begins Tuesday, Jan. 20 and continues through Thursday, Jan. 22. They still need more than a thousand volunteers to sign up. 

"There are a few areas where we are, especially looking for folks, especially on the first night of the count, and that includes areas around downtown and then some parts of the northern part of the county," said Rubenstein.

More volunteers are needed for parts of East LA and the San Gabriel Valley too. Without them, it could impact the accuracy of the data collected on the homeless population. 

Volunteers are not tasked with surveying anyone they encounter, only keeping a tally and entering that information into the database. 

LAHSA staff and their partners help with the count too, so the work will get done, but volunteers are a huge help. 

You can sign up at theycountwillyou.org.