Speaker 1: (00:00)
San Diego's annual count of people who are homeless, both sheltered and unsheltered would normally take place during this last week in January, but not this year. The San Diego regional task force on homelessness has postponed the count until late next month, due to the surge in COVID 19, the number of homeless resident reported in each year's count is used to determine federal funding and where county resources are needed. The most. It also tells us more about the people experiencing homelessness, young and old veterans and families, and what they do to survive. Joining me as Tamara Kohler, CEO of the San Diego regional task force on homelessness and Tamara. Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: (00:44)
Thank you, Maureen. It's good to join you.
Speaker 1: (00:47)
Why did you decide the surge in COVID 19 should delay the homeless count?
Speaker 2: (00:52)
You know, this count is critical that we're engaging in speaking with individuals experiencing homelessness on the street, and you can't do that level of engagement, uh, safely when we have this level of ity of this variant. So last year, 2021, we traditionally do account every year, 2021. We didn't have the vaccines. We were still in a high level of spread. And so we canceled the count year, this year, same concern of safety, not only for those doing the activity of engaging, but the homeless population as well. We felt like with the data coming out and now it's really been evidence in what we're seeing the surge and the challenges of, of breakthrough. Even with vaccinations, that it, it was the right thing to do to delay it by a month, looking at the data that the county was putting out as well. We feel we can safely do this. Everyone being considered in February, we're, we're planning to do it February 24th. Now, now remind
Speaker 1: (01:57)
Us what the volunteer counters do during the count, where do they go? How do they try to locate people who are homeless? You
Speaker 2: (02:04)
Know, we use over 1600 volunteers to do this level of engagement across the entire county. It looks different depending on the geography. So as an example, in downtown San Diego, we have people that leave from a central location. They have a designed map, a every street, every intersection, every location, and it's mapped out and they look to talk to people in tents, curled up in blankets. Those walking around to ask them about to their experiences, get really critical information, age demographic, as you had mentioned, possible veterans service, you know, is this a family age is a really important thing. And as much as we can speaking to individuals, we also have a large geography. So in some areas it looks different. I have two people in a vehicle driving around in a designated area, looking for individuals to engage. If they can do it safely, if they can observe someone, but not able to engage them, they do an observational count and make some judgements based on what they visually can see, but it requires people able to walk and, uh, talk closely and engage.
Speaker 2: (03:22)
It requires people driving. It requires a lot of planning. There are 32 deployment sites. We print out maps of the entire region through these census tracks. And we also use a mobile app to collect all this information. So then it's plotting it all on a map, collecting this information so we can correlate it all together to do a complete, accurate count, and then represent that numbers, demographics, age, you know, veteran status. And it asks some important, uh, questions as well. So it is quite an effort. It takes a lot of people. It looks different into different communities, but it happens across the entire county in a four hour timeframe from four in the morning until eight. So it's, it's a big effort, important engagement, but needs to be done safely. Now,
Speaker 1: (04:13)
Even before the count this year, is there a sense that the pandemic has increased San Diego's homeless pot?
Speaker 2: (04:20)
You know, I've had the pleasure of being over point in time counts, not only in San Diego, but in other communities. And I'm very, uh, intentional that we don't estimate. We don't guess we want to make sure we do a full count of those individuals. It's been two years since we've done a full unsheltered count. And so I think we need to make sure that we do our due diligence. We do it to the highest standards in engagement, and then see what that information provides for us. I know that we're seeing more concentration in different areas, but I don't know if that's balanced out across the entire region, so important to not predict, but to count accurately and intentionally, and then report the numbers and do our work diligently every day to address our UN sheltered homeless in a really person centered way.
Speaker 1: (05:09)
Now this year's homeless count will take place about a month from now on February 24th. Do you have enough volunteers? Are you still looking for some people to sign up?
Speaker 2: (05:19)
We still need volunteers. Uh, we need about 1600 volunteers to really do this well. And to get to all of the geography and locations that we have our volunteer count right now is just over a thousand. We believe it was low considering the high surge of Omni Cru, and the concern of that we really would appreciate and would be an deed to people who would consider volunteering. We are going to provide N 95 masks that protects both the wear and the person that they're speaking to. And it's a great barrier, um, to be able to keep us safe, we're going to match people up more intentionally of people they're already working with. So what would be really great is if you and someone in your household would volunteer and that's the safest way for us to be able to do that work, you can volunteer by going to our website, RT F H S d.org, and it's on the landing page. And Maureen, we would just be so thrilled and indebted to anyone. If you're interested in understanding homelessness, if you want us to, uh, really understand the numbers that are happening, are the numbers up or down, participate in the count that helps us get the most accurate numbers to address the situations on the street and to plan appropriately.
Speaker 1: (06:34)
I've been speaking with Tamara Kohler. She is CEO of the San Diego regional task force on homelessness, Tamara. Thank you very
Speaker 2: (06:41)
Much. Thank you.
