Orange County supervisors on Tuesday, Oct. 5, approved a $500,000 contract with homeless outreach organization City Net to take the lead in the countywide Point in Time homeless street census that is expected to happen in January, delayed by a year because of COVID-19.
The county last enumerated its homeless street population in January 2019, documenting about 7,000 people who struggle with housing, including nearly 4,000 who were without any kind of shelter.
But in many Southern California communities, including Orange County, the pandemic put the kibosh on conducting a count of unsheltered homeless people this year. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which mandates the Point in Time count to help determine housing needs, funding and other resources, allowed such exemptions because of the health risks posed by doing person-to-person surveys, with the help of volunteers, at a time when the coronavirus pandemic was raging.
The contract with City Net, a nonprofit hired over the past few years to connect homeless people in several Orange County cities to local services, outlines health and safety protocols because of the ongoing pandemic.
Dr. Clayton Chau, chief public health officer and director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, told the board that the Point in Time count will again rely on the work of volunteers but that there will be “strict criteria” for them to follow, including the following precautions:
• Volunteers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo a PCR diagnostic test.
• Training can be done virtually or via recorded videos to avoid large in-person gatherings.
• The groups that conduct the street count will be smaller.
The Point in Time count is a one-night snapshot that annually looks at the population of people residing in shelters and other temporary quarters and, at least every other year, at individuals living without any kind of shelter. Housing and Urban Development also requires that the Point in Time census take place during the last 10 days of January.
Orange County, unlike most of its neighbors in Southern California, conducts the street count every other year.
City Net provided training and other guidance for volunteers in the 2019 homeless survey. The field teams used a different methodology than in previous years, employing mapping and technology that helped them gather information about the demographics of local homeless people and the geography of where they sleep.
City Net had been hired to lead the canceled 2021 count as well. Selection of the Long Beach-based nonprofit drew criticism from an Anaheim couple who are longtime homeless advocates, David Duran and Pat Davis. Both submitted written opposition to the 2022 contract.
In his email, read aloud by County Counsel Leon Page, Duran questioned why there was no open bidding to determine who should oversee the Point in Time count, which he characterized as a “misrepresentation of the unhoused population.”
City Net, Duran wrote, “has allowed this county to manipulate the actual count numbers to falsely represent the growing population of unhoused … so as to justify the county’s pittance of economic investment …”
Duran’s allegation was not addressed by representatives of City Net, but Supervisor Doug Chaffee countered that the organization “basically did a good job.”
Davis asserted that the county’s homeless population has not had positive experiences with service providers, such as City Net, or law enforcement. She contended that for those reasons, homeless people, who died on the street in historic numbers last year, would be reluctant to participate in the Point in Time count.
“There is no trust to step forward and be included in this effort,” Davis wrote, repeatedly admonishing county officials to “Be Honest!”
Supervisor Andrew Do, the board chairman, responded by accusing the critics of “taking shots” at the county: “If we do it in house we’re not trustworthy. If we use a vendor, they’re not trustworthy.”
Over the years, the Point in Time exercise, in Orange County and elsewhere, has been criticized for allegedly under counting the number of homeless people.
But Supervisor Katrina Foley said the work City Net has done in local communities gives it the “institutional knowledge” to locate homeless people who don’t want to be found.
Source: Orange County Register
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