Homeless Issue Still Making Headlines In California

The latest numbers from the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development are a sobering dose of reality for California.

The Homelessness Assessment Report shows California accounts for half of all unsheltered people in the country, one third of the nation’s total homeless population, and California had the largest increase in the number of homeless in the country between 2020-2022.

Senate Bill 31 in on the table in Sacramento.

If it becomes law, it would prohibit homeless camps near schools and parks and day care centers.  It would require homeless people be given a 72 hour notice before law enforcement comes in and clears out a camp. 

Officers would be required to give people in the camp information on shelters, and mental health services that are available.  

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Riverside County needs volunteers to count homeless people.

The Annual Homeless Point-In-Time Count is set for January 25th 2023.

Volunteers are encouraged to sign up now.

The County needs more than 7-hundred people to cover 73-hundred square miles and count people living on the streets  in cities and unincorporated areas.

The 2022 count lists 1,980 homeless people in Riverside County.  

All of them were offered help.

Only 28% of them, 558 people, asked for services to get them out of their dilemma.

Believe it or not, training is required in order for you to count homeless people. 

Volunteers must  have a smart phone or tablet to participate in the count, have to be able to walk for at least 2 hours, and must be 18 or older.   Teens 16 and 17, must be with an adult..

The Homeless County is set  for Wednesday, January 25th, 2023, while the Youth Count is scheduled for Wednesday January 25th  2023 through Friday January 27th 2023.

Interested? Register at www.rivcohws.org/homeless-point-time-pit-count.

Homeless man sitting with hands outstretched seeking a handout.

Photo from Alpha Media Palm Springs CA