Census Provides Snapshot of Westside Homeless

By Jenee Darden
Special to The Lookout

January 13 -- A dark street, parked car, abandoned building and, if lucky, a shelter were home at some point last year to nearly 15,000 people on the Westside, including Santa Monica, according to a 2005 homeless census released Thursday.

Sponsored by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the first countywide homeless census projected that more than 220,000 men, women and children were homeless in the county sometime in 2005.

On the three nights the census was taken, some 88,000 people were counted across the county. Of those, nearly 7,000 were counted on the Westside. (see story)

“That’s Glendale and Pasadena put together,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a press conference Thursday, referring to the 220,000 homeless counted in the county. “In addition to being the poverty capital of the United States of America, we’re the homeless capital as well.”

The census -- which did not break out figures for Santa Monica in its initial release -- also revealed that 78 percent of those living on the county’s streets are Angelinos. That appears to debunk the myth that Southern California’s warm weather and pretty beaches draw most of the area’s homeless people from outside of the county.

“We do not have a situation where hordes are coming from outside of our county,” said Owen Newcomer, chairperson for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

The census for the Westside, including Santa Monica, found that:

• 6,860 homeless people were counted on one night,
  
• 14,886 homeless people a year live on the streets,
  
• 4,316 homeless men and 1,550 homeless women were counted,
  
• 899 of the homeless individuals counted were under the age of 18,
  
• 3,664 of those counted were chronically homeless, and
  
• 462 of the homeless counted were victims of domestic violence

Santa Monica’s homeless rate was not listed because findings were reported according to region, not cities. However, in 1999 there were 1,037 homeless people in Santa Monica, said Mona Miyasato, acting human service manager.

A Los Angeles council district breakdown showed that 2,526 homeless lived in the Westside’s 11th District, making up just over five percent of the district’s total residents. By contrast, 8,425 homeless individuals lived in downtown Los Angeles’ ninth district, making up 17.5 percent of the district’s total population.

But 11th District Council member Bill Rosendahl said he is not sure if the results underestimate the homeless population on the Westside.

“I question the accuracy of it,” he said.

Santa Monica borders West Los Angles and people “wander between both communities,” said Rosendahl. He and Santa Monica Council member Bobby Shriver want to convert vacant buildings on the Veterans Administration campus in Brentwood into homes for homeless veterans.

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority executive director Mitchell Netburn said Santa Monica City officials requested homeless statistics for the city. The census will be released to City officials in a few weeks.

"A decision was made to release all of them (census counts for individual cities) or none of them," Netburn said. "There were a fair amount (of census tracts) counted within the 87 cities" to get a statistically valid count.

However, Netburn added, it wouldn't be fair to those cities that did not have enough census tracts counted to release statistics for those that did. Santa Monica's count was more exhaustive and the numbers will be released at the City's request.

"We'll get them the numbers fairly quickly," he said. "I do know we did count several census tracts in Santa Monica."

The 198-page study provides a demographic snapshot of the county’s homeless and the conditions leading to destitution, including unemployment, domestic violence and mental illness.

Nearly 50 percent of the respondents were considered chronically homeless because they suffered from mental and physical health problems and lived on the streets more than one year or at least four times within a year.

Countywide statistics, which do not include Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena, found that:

• There were 47,813 men, 20,092 women and 1,088 transgender individuals counted during the census,
  
• 19,882 of the homeless identified were in families,
  
• The median age of respondents was 43 years,
  
• 52 percent of all respondents were homeless for one year or more
  
• 24 percent of female respondents reported experiencing domestic violence and , 14 percent of respondents experiencing domestic violence said that was the primary cause of their homelessness

The release of the census taken a year ago comes after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors allocated $24 million for homeless services and Mayor Villaraigosa announced a $50 million housing plan.

When asked if the money was going be enough to tackle the staggering numbers, the mayor said, “It’s never enough. It’s a beginning.”

Olin Ericksen contributed to this report