More 'rough sleepers' on Hollywood streets as the city removes tents, bringing new challenges

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The two women, mother and daughter, sat on a mattress covering half the sidewalk on the shady side of Western Avenue, still shivering in the morning chill.As volunteer Joan Howard approached, her assigned mission was to tally the two women and keep moving.She had a census tract to cover on foot before 9 a.m.Howard was participating in a novel homeless count conducted by the nonprofit Hollywood 4WRD.

About 60 volunteers with clipboards spread out over Hollywood on Tuesday morning to count every tent, makeshift shelter, lived-in vehicle and obviously homeless person.Their job was to observe and record, not engage.But in that moment, a conflicting instinct kicked in.

Howard, a longtime volunteer outreach worker for the organization Food on Foot, dropped to her knees, took the daughter’s hand and listened to their story.After their rental in North Carolina was condemned, the daughter said, they came with her husband and brother to Los Angeles to live with a relative, only to be rebuffed.The daughter, who is pregnant, and mother, suffering severe ankle swelling, both needed medical attention but had no idea how to get help.

Their wallets were stolen, leaving them without identification.For the sake of the count, Howard had to move on.But the women’s crisis gave a stark example of why Hollywood 4WRD wants to gather its own information to supplement the official homeless count.Keeping track of how many like them are sleeping outdoors without so much as a tent or vehicle to shelter them has become a major concern for the organization.

As the city’s cleaning and removal programs have reduced prominent encampments on Hollywood’s streets, the number of people sleeping rough is on the rise.“The transformation in Hollywood is profound,” said Louis Abramson, lead author of a Rand Corp.project that is the model for the Hollywood count.Since 2021, Rand’s LA LEADS project has su...