Census takes count of homeless population in Sonoma County

Asiya Powell greeted an acquaintance on a downtown Santa Rosa sidewalk Friday morning, then leaned into a companion clutching a clipboard and a pen.

“This is one,” Powell said discreetly, ensuring the passerby was included in this year’s census of homeless individuals in Sonoma County. “One female. Over 25.”

Continuing west through a light rain to Old Courthouse Square, where three men bundled in sleeping bags still slept in the shelter of an awning and the slatted gazebo, Powell, 41, told her own story of divorce, unemployment and becoming homeless a few years ago.

Her familiarity with the community and its hidden niches made her a helpful participant in this year’s official point-in-time count, now an annual attempt to obtain as complete an accounting as possible of the number of unhoused people who call Sonoma County home.

The census is used, in part, to assess and guide ongoing efforts to address the county’s distressingly large homeless rate, which is about three times the national average, said Jennielynn Holmes, director of shelter and housing for Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa.

Local governments, led by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, have pursued a variety of ambitious proposals in recent years to provide services and housing for the homeless, including safe-parking programs that permit people to sleep in their cars, mobile shower and toilet units, studies of “tiny homes” for use in affordable housing, and plans for a comprehensive new homeless center in or near Guerneville.

As many as 90 homeless guides participated in the census Friday morning, joining up to 150 volunteers who fanned out around the county to tally each person they found who had spent the night somewhere other than in a residence.

Venturing out into the dark, drippy morning in teams of two to four people, they departed from five deployment centers before sunrise in hopes of catching people where they slept, to avoid double- counting.

Their mission was simply to count each person, record their gender and, if possible, assign them to one of three age groups: under 18, 18 to 24, and 25 and older. They did not try to wake people or otherwise disturb them. More extensive surveys of about one in four subjects were to be conducted separately, at a later time, officials said.

Powell made sure the three others on her team knew about each overhang and alcove in the downtown business district where someone might curl up for the night.

“The guides are really essential for the count,” said Michael Gause, coordinator of the federal Continuum of Care Program for Sonoma County. “One of our guides in Petaluma and our volunteers actually found a structure somebody had built about 20 feet up in a tree. It’s pretty amazing.”

This is the fifth Sonoma County homeless count, though until now they’ve been done every other year, beginning in 2009.

The census is required by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development and allows the county access to $3.1 million in grants for homeless residents, county officials said. Participants - organized through centers in Petaluma, Healdsburg, Sonoma, Guerneville and Santa Rosa - use census tract maps and a variety of tips and intelligence sources to look for homeless people to include in the count.

The January 2015 count identified 3,107 unhoused Sonoma County residents, though 1,037 were in homeless shelters the day of the census. An additional 2,070 had no shelter at all. Sonoma County’s population stands at roughly 500,000.

The overall homeless figure last year marked a decline of 27 percent from 2013, in part thanks to an improved economy and higher employment as well as significant efforts on the part of the county to rehouse those who have fallen into homelessness, said Holmes, with Catholic Charities.

HUD requires homeless counts from every county in the nation during the last 10 days of January, though some are conducted at a fairly superficial level - say, by holding a pancake breakfast and counting those who attend, Holmes said.

Sonoma County’s efforts are funded to the tune of $80,000, allocated by county supervisors, with contributions totaling $16,000 from the county’s nine cities, Gause said.

“Our county has really invested in getting as comprehensive a count as possible,” Holmes said. “You’re not capturing everything if you’re not going to where they’re at.”

The launch last year of a countywide outreach team that works to engage and connect with homeless individuals has allowed organizers to become familiar with numerous major encampments they would not otherwise know about and may help improve the count’s accuracy, Holmes said.

But the homeless guides are key as well, in terms of locating sleeping areas and identifying people they know are homeless.

On Friday, rain and mud likely accounted for what seemed to be a high concentration in the urban core of Santa Rosa, Holmes said.

But it also made it difficult to find some people who would normally be in a predictable place, she said.

“This is kind of a bad time because it’s saturated enough that a lot of people are leaving their camps,” said Clover Miller, 42, a guide for one team in downtown Santa Rosa. She spoke as her team approached a man at a bus stop with two broken arms.

As they left him, Miller said, “Count him.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.