Almost 7500 volunteers have signed up with the LA Homeless Services Authority for the Los Angeles County’s homeless count to start this week. What is unusual about this count is that it was scheduled for this year too. Normally, it is done only every odd year, such as 2015.

Last year the count showed 44,000 homeless people, which was a 12 percent increase over the previous count. The count for Venice, which is second only to Los Angeles’ downtown Skid Row for homeless population, was up 14 percent.

Homeless veterans became a noteworthy figure when Mayor Eric Garcetti in July 2014 said he wanted to have all veterans housed by the end of 2015. In January of 2015 he claimed he was well on the way to accomplishing such, but the figures for the homeless count released in May showed a 6 percent increase in homeless veterans. As a result of this figure, the US Department of Veteran Affairs put up money to help the City and County.

The LA Times article reports that the LA County Board of Supervisors have a short-term response to homelessness and plan to spend $150 million. LA city officials released a study concluding that ending homelessness would require $185 billion over a period of 10 years.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-homeless-count-20160126-story.html