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Results are in from Point In Time Count, which contacts and counts people who are experiencing homelessness. Organized on the national level by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Point in Time Count asks volunteers to make contact with and collect biographical information from unhoused people in their community on one single day in January.
This year, volunteers across the nation conducted their survey on January 26, and in San Bernardino County, which is the California’s largest county, more than 800 volunteers participated in the count.
The count seeks to make contact with and include in the count people in shelters and transitional housing as well as those living in places not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, and abandoned buildings.
When volunteers make contact with unhoused person during the count, a few biographical questions are asked, such as age, ethnicity, health status, and the duration of their unhoused experience.
Z107.7 Reporter Heather Clisby volunteered her time on January 26th to participate in this year’s point in time count, and she spoke with us about her experience as a volunteer in Twentynine Palms:
Heather Clisby: “It’s very early in the morning you are waking people up in their tents which doesn’t have a door to knock on… so you end up yelling. This is my first time volunteering – so I’m not familiar with a better way to be honest – not everybody wanted to come out of their tent.
In more than one situation there was one person that came out and referenced that there were several other people in the tent. It’s an inexact science of course and these are moving targets…”
The numbers from 2023’s count were released this week for San Bernardino County. They show a 26% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in our county since 2022.
This year, 4195 unhoused people were contacted and counted in San Bernardino County, an increase of 862 individuals from the 3,333 people counted in 2022.
The county attributes a portion of the increase to the inclusion of data from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach and Proactive Enforcement program, which was considered alongside data gathered the Point in Time Count numbers.
A presentation made to the County’s Interagency Council on Homelessness on Wednesday (April 27) presented the data from the count, which will be used to guide funding for homelessness relief on federal, state, county, and local levels.
Of the 4195 unhoused people contacted through the 2023 Point In Time Count, 75 were in Twentynine Palms, 42 were in Joshua Tree, 36 were in Yucca Valley, and 2 were in Landers. A total of 155 unhoused people were contacted and counted across the Morongo Basin.
Joshua Tree saw a 50% increase in its unhoused population since 2022, and Yucca Valley’s unhoused population increased by 93% since 2022, but it should be noted that 23 of the 36 people counted in Yucca Valley were in shelters or transitional housing.
Heather Clisby summed up her Point in Time Count experience: “I feel like I got to meet the homeless situation – specifically in Twentynine Palms – face to face. In some cases we met people that just wanted food… they just wanted clothing so we gave him some of our own. We came prepared with some but I really wish you would have had a list of resources.. somewhere we could direct them.”
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