Homeless Count Preparations Underway in Pasadena, As Organizers Seek Volunteers for 2023 Count

The city and the Pasadena Partnership to End Homelessness are looking for volunteers to participate in the 2023 Pasadena Homeless Count, which is scheduled for January. 

“Each year, volunteers help count people experiencing homelessness living on the streets of Pasadena during one night in the last ten days of January,” according to the Pasadena Partnership, a collaborative funding and planning body that is committed to ending homelessness in Pasadena

Volunteers will be sent in teams of 4 or 5 to an assigned zone on the night of January 24 (8:00-10:00 p.m.) and the morning of January 25 (6:00-8:00 a.m.) to help count and administer a survey to homelessness people encountered.

The same teams go out together in the evening and the next morning. Volunteers should be 18 years of age or older. They are asked to attend a virtual orientation to prepare for the count.

The Homeless Count provides meaningful data to further the City’s understanding of our local homeless population and to inform resource allocation for services and programs.

Organized and implemented by the Pasadena Department of Housing in collaboration with the Pasadena Partnership, the Homeless Count, also called the Point-in-Time Count, is a one-night snapshot of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness. The count is reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) annually during the last ten days of January.

The Pasadena Partnership to End Homelessness is the lead agency for the Pasadena Continuum of Care, a planning process implemented by HUD in 1994.

HUD is one of the largest sources of federal funding for programs that address homelessness or the risk of becoming homeless. With the Continuum of Care process, communities are able to identify local needs and develop strategies, and submit a single application to HUD for funding.

Data derived from the Homeless Count is primarily used to explore the extent of homelessness and the changes in trends among specific sub-populations, to identify local priorities that should be considered in making resource allocation decisions, and to help in the planning and development of more effective services and resources.

Aside from general volunteers, the other volunteer types are professional volunteers, who will be assigned to areas outside of the zones general volunteers do not cover, including parks, freeway embankments, and other previously identified hot spots; and youth volunteers, who will be sent out in teams of 3 to 4 to an assigned area on the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 25, from 3 to 5 p.m.

Youth volunteers must be 16, with parental permission, and must attend an online orientation on Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 3 to 5 p.m.

To volunteer for the Pasadena Homeless Count, visit www.pasadenapartnership.org/volunteer-homeless-count and register.

The registration deadline is Jan. 6, 2023. For everyone who has registered, a mandatory volunteer orientation via Zoom is scheduled for Jan. 17, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.