One of the signal evenings of the year is at hand.
At 6:30, a couple dozen volunteers will assemble at the Senior Center. After receiving training and instructions, they will climb into cars to begin the evening-long task of counting Culver City’s homeless bodies.
Last year there were 33. No one expects the number to be nudged much as the Countywide count – formerly every other year – becomes an annual assignment.
The count was important enough for City Councilman Jim Clarke to announce/promote it at Monday evening’s meeting.
“Counting the homeless is important,” Mr. Clarke said, “because we are part of an entire region. Counting helps us to determine if we are dealing with the homeless problem.”
Councilman Clarke believes the homeless are not being sufficiently served, although fault was not assigned.
“Sine but not all of us are out of the Great Recession,” he said. “Not everybody recovered at the same time.
“We are continuing to have problems that add to the homeless population. “
The count is valuable to City Hall, Mr. Clarke said, “because even though we don’t have a large homeless population, it is important because we use some of our General Fund money to support homeless services.
“A lot of times we are not able to provide benefits to them.
“Some people just choose a homeless lifestyle. We want them to be aware, though, that the services are here for them.”
