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KPBS Midday Edition

San Diego County's homeless count pushed to February

Homeless camps in downtown San Diego, March 14, 2014
Nicholas McVicker
/
KPBS

The San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness has delayed its annual homeless count, due to safety concerns amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. The homeless count normally takes place during the last week of January, but this year it has been moved to Feb. 24. The count includes homeless people who are both sheltered and unsheltered.

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The number of homeless residents reported in each year’s count is used to determine federal funding and where county resources are needed the most, and it also tells more about the people experiencing homelessness and what they do to survive.

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Tamera Kohler, CEO of the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness, joined KPBS Midday Edition to talk about why they made the decision to postpone this year's homeless count after canceling it last year.

"This count is critical, that we're engaging and speaking with individuals experiencing homelessness on the street, and you can't do that level of engagement safely when we have this level of transmission from this variant," Kohler said. "We traditionally do a count every year, but 2021 we didn't have the vaccines. We were still in a high level of spread and so we canceled the count last year. This year, there's the 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 there has really been evidence in what we're seeing in the surge and the challenges of breakthroughs even with vaccinations, that it was the right thing to do to delay it by a month."

She said over 1,600 volunteers help go out and gather the data across the county.

"They have an assigned map of every street, every intersection, every location mapped out, and they look to talk to people in tents, curled up in blankets and those walking around to ask them about their experiences and get really critical information like age, demographics as you had mentioned, possible veteran service and if they're a family," Kohler said.

Kohler said more volunteers are needed for next month's count to help reach all of the locations. She said volunteers can sign up on the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness website.