First in a series

Four months have passed since an evening in January when the Dr. Ira Diamond-led Homeless Committee of Culver City went out in the dark to count the street-living homeless.

For reasons related to multi-tiered crisscrossing directions and dense bureaucracy, the count, by a County agency, still has not been released one-third of a year later.

Culver City’s street total has been in the 30s. Dr. Diamond would not be surprised if it rose.

“It is hard to tell though,” he said. “The Greater Los Angeles homeless count is a snapshot of what the homeless count is at a certain moment in time.

“It varies from day to day, month to month.”

A dedicated, prominent voice for the voiceless, Dr. Diamond detects a possible trend un Culver City.

“Anecdotally, nothing official, it seems to me,” he said, “that in our area the number of homeless seems greater.

“I see more homeless individuals under bridges, by shopping centers – many places. Also vehicles.”

Dr. Diamond said he will be “very interested to see how Culver City is doing in terms of homeless numbers.”

Why does the community have relatively modest homeless numbers?

It is inaccurate to place the total in the 30s, he said, “because we have sheltered and unsheltered homeless. We have persons sheltered with vouchers. Some are sheltered with organizations like Upward Bound.

“Some are non-sheltered, on the street. You could have elderly men and women. You could have young people. You could have veterans, non-veterans. A variety of people.”

Apparent visible trends aside, Dr. Diamond is “hopeful that our count will go down with some of the programs that now are being implemented.”

(To be continued)