Third in a series
Re “Finding, Counting Homeless Is Complicated”
Like housed people, Tevis Barnes was saying, “those who are homeless have the same basic desires. They want to sleep in a nice, quiet neighborhood like everybody else.
“They wait for everyone else to go to sleep. Or to go away.”
Routinely the homeless hide, said Culver City’s Housing Administrator.
Shame is one driving reason. They don’t want to be seen in their present state. At the end of another disappointing day, they yearn only for a calm setting.
“Homeless people also hide for safety reasons,” Ms. Barnes said. “Many women will hide in a residential neighborhood. They know that at 10, 10:30, most people are in and asleep. Those are safe neighborhoods. They are in that neighborhood for the same reason as the people who live there – it is safe.”
Charting and aiding the homeless is disturbingly complex. “It’s about human beings, so of course it is complex,” Ms. Barnes said.
Earlier she reported that for the first time in her memory, a family had been found on the street, not in a shelter – two adults and two minors. “We will have to work closely with Upward Bound House on Washington Boulevard to see what we can do about it,” Ms. Barnes said.
By the Numbers
While City Hall’s tabulation differs from the County’s homeless total, the city’s count of 68 unsheltered homeless persons is a record.
Ms. Barnes cited the number of those living in vans as an example of how homelessness is rising. “In 2005, we counted five people living in vans,” she said. “This year, five times that number.”
The unsheltered homeless in Culver City:
- Cars – 17
- Vans — 25
- Campers and RVs – 18
- Tent – 1
- Makeshift shelters — 7