More Employees Needed to Count People Experiencing Homelessness

More County employees are needed to help count people experiencing homelessness in the San Diego region.

Due to the rise of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, the annual count has been postponed for about a month.

The Point-in-Time Count will now take place from 3:45 to 8 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Volunteers are being asked to arrive at their deployment location by 3:30 a.m. to allow time to become familiar with a mobile app that is used for counting. The app helps to conduct a more accurate count.

If you had already signed up for the earlier count, you should still report to your assigned location. All volunteers will be getting N95 masks to protect themselves and others they encounter that morning. 

This is the eighth year the County has supported the annual count, which did not take place last year due to the ongoing pandemic.  

Employees who participate can do so on County time since the Board of Supervisors approved the policy last November.

Once again, the count, as directed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will entail an “engaged” survey-based approach, where people on the streets will be surveyed as they are encountered rather than just an observational count that was done in the past. To learn more about the engaged count, please watch this 3-minute video. 

The 2020 Point-in-Time County identified 7,638 people who said they were homeless or in shelters throughout the county.

The count helps the region identify the scope of the problem, apply for federal and state funding, and find solutions on how to best serve this vulnerable population.

The Regional Task Force on Homelessness is leading the local point-in-time effort with the WeALLCount campaign. Last count, approximately 550 County employees participated and employees are again encouraged to participate in this important undertaking.

The deadline to sign up is Monday, Feb. 21 at 5 p.m. Review the FAQs and then obtain approval from your supervisor via the supervisor approval form if you are interested in participating.

Once you get approval, please sign up here. After you have signed up, you will receive an email receipt for this event. In the email there will be a link to a training from The Regional Task Force on Homelessness for you to review.  

Members of the public can also join the count. If you know family or friends who would like to participate, they can sign up to volunteer.