One of the critical nights of the year dawns tomorrow evening when Culver City locks arms with the rest of Los Angeles County to count the obviously homeless men, women and children.
It was 43 degrees in the darkness of this morning. Who can imagine sleeping in that frigid weather with no hope of escaping inside until at least daylight?
Because of his uncommon dedication to and knowledge of the homeless, Dr. Ira Diamond has become prominently identified with this easy-to-overlook daily tragedy.
The count is conducted annually to determine distribution of the quantity of resources.
In his third year as chair of Culver City’s Homelessness Committee, Dr. Diamond needs 70 volunteers to report to the Senior Center at 8 on Wednesday evening. So far, a little more than 50 persons have signed up.
To participate, go to www.theycountwillyou.org (Culver City is in SPA 5) or email culvercityhomelesscount@aol.com.
“We need volunteers who will go out on (four-member) teams (starting at 9:30),” Dr. Diamond said. “But we also need volunteers to help at the Senior Center to set up and clean up there.
“The majority of what we need, though, is people who will go out and deploy.”
The task of counting the several dozen Culver City homeless – going into the streets and searching – spans a mere 2½ hours, but completing the entire task is weeks long.
“We want people to come to the Senior Center,” said Dr. Diamond, “but we would like them to pre-register (at the above address).”
(To be continued)