The city of Pasadena and the Pasadena Partnership to End Homelessness will be conducting the annual homeless count Wednesday evening, Feb. 19, and Thursday morning, Feb. 20.
Originally scheduled for last month, the count was postponed due to the Eaton fire. In addition to the main count, a count focusing on transitional-aged youth (18-24 years old) will be conducted Wednesday afternoon.
“In the midst of our current disaster, I’m so encouraged by the outpouring of love and support for our community, which I know will continue to spill over to our neighbors experiencing homelessness during the annual homeless count,” Homeless Count Coordinator Dan Davidson said in a statement. “Though postponed, we will still be ready to conduct the survey and share our cold weather kits with neighbors in need.”
Davidson said more than 175 volunteers will take part in this week’s count. He said it is difficult to forecast how the number might differ from last year and expects them to be similar to the 2024 count.
Pasadena Homeless Programs Coordinator Jennifer O’Reilly-Jones said the hope is that all fire-impacted households have been able to find temporary housing or shelter and “that we won’t find them experiencing homelessness.”
She said with the American Red Cross moving its shelter from the Pasadena Convention Center to Pamela Park in Duarte over the weekend, those people will be counted in the Los Angeles homeless count conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
“Our Homeless Count survey includes a question about the main causes of an individual’s homelessness, so we will learn if there are fire-impacted individuals or families on our streets who need additional resources,” O’Reilly-Jones said in an email.
The main count will go from 8-10 p.m. on Wednesday and from 6-8 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Pasadena Partnership. In the 2024 count, 556 people were counted, the exact same number as the year prior, according to a City Council presentation in July.
O’Reilly-Jones presented the 2024 data, said while the overall number was the same from the previous year there were shifts under the surface.
More than half of those counted last year had been Pasadena residents for an average of 22 years prior to becoming homeless.
In the 2024 homeless count, Black residents made up 27% of the homeless population while being 8% of the city’s population. The city reported that Hispanic/Latino homelessness rose in the 2024 count making up close to half of the homeless population while making up 35% of Pasadena’s population.
Pasadena is one of a handful of cities that does its own count and is not part of the annual Los Angeles County homeless count. The count includes those sheltered and unsheltered.
O’Reilly-Jones said the data collected from the count gives the city insights into who is homeless on Pasadena streets, where they are from and how they became homeless. The information collected informs planning and funding services throughout the year.
She said over the past two years Pasadena has opened two new supportive housing buildings plus a third opened in Altadena by the county.
“We’re housing more people than ever before, so of course we hope to see a decrease,” O’Reilly-Jones said. “The challenge continues to be the persistent inflow of people falling into homelessness, which may have been exacerbated by the Eaton Fire.”
Pasadena Public Health and Huntington Hospital will be providing COVID, flu and Hepatitis A vaccines as well as Narcan overdose reversal kits to people experiencing homelessness throughout the count.
For more information, visit www.pasadenapartnership.org.