The Organization’s Next Community Meeting Will Take Place January 23
By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor
Volunteers are needed in Pacific Palisades to count the number of individuals experiencing homelessness and their location in the community as part of the annual Point in Time Homeless Count, which will take place on Wednesday, January 25.
The count is scheduled for the early morning, beginning at approximately 5 a.m. at Corpus Christi Church—located at 880 Toyopa Drive, inside the gymnasium.
The Palisades participated in the count for the first time in 2015 and has assisted annually since, with the leadership of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness.
Over 40 volunteers gathered in 2022 for the count. Community members were divided into teams to survey all areas of the Palisades, and conduct a census of individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
PPTFH Co-Chair Sharon Kilbride led the 2022 count with LAPD Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin.
“It is always interesting to see how we compare to the rest of Los Angeles and see how we are doing,” Kilbride said to the Palisadian-Post in 2022. “The Palisades’ count numbers of unhoused individuals have dropped every year since we formed in 2016. We believe that because of the work PPTFH does we have made a difference in solving homelessness in our community.”
The collected data was released in September 2022. PPTFH Co-Chair Sharon Browning told the Post the task force did notice a significant change in the number of vehicles—23 to 38—and an increase in tents and makeshift shelters—five to eight.
Browning said data shows the area along Pacific Coast Highway saw a higher count, and the area from Sunset to Temescal increased significantly—from 17 to 30.
PPTFH also reported that the Palisades is seeing increased numbers of people experiencing homelessness coming into and out of town, which LAHSA does not take into account.
“Many of these individuals are dealing with serious mental illness and addiction, which requires intensive work,” Browning added. “We are doing our best, but are stretched further in our capacity each day.”
According to an announcement, PPTFH is doing its own recruitment and its deployment site—Corpus Christi Church—is not listed on the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority website.
Those interested in volunteering are encouraged to contact Site Coordinator Kim Clary at kimjdave@msn.com to sign up.
The next PPTFH online community meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday, January 23, from 7 to 8:15 p.m. covering the topic: “Homelessness and Affordable Housing! What To Do?”
The featured guest speaker will be Brian Ulf, board president of SHARE!, which serves “as a starting place for communities to talk about affordable housing.”
“With Los Angeles struggling to find cost effective housing and supportive services for its reported 44,000 unhoused people, local communities are faced with the unavoidable need to become part of the discussion,” according to a flyer shared by PPTFH. “One nonprofit organization has developed a public-private partnership solution to affordable housing. SHARE! Collaborative Housing places extremely low-income people into single-family private homes and mom and pop investor-owned apartments, while providing mental health or other disability support services. Learn why only 4% of their participants return to homelessness.”
For more information or to sign up to receive a link to the Zoom webinar, visit palisadeshomeless.org. There is also a place to submit questions for Ulf.
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