Volunteers get up early for one-day homeless count

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As the sun rose on a chilly Thursday morning, San Mateo County Supervisor Lisa Gauthier and her chief of staff, Nicole Fernandez, walked down an alleyway in East Palo Alto. Their voices hushed as they walked past a man and woman sleeping on a mattress, wrapped in thin blankets. 

Fernandez recorded the information in an app designed to collect census data on the homeless population. Gauthier and Fernandez, along with county employee Selina Toy Lee, were canvassing an area of East Palo Alto for San Mateo County’s biennial one-day homeless count. They were part of a team of 350 trained volunteers who walked or drove the entirety of the county early on Jan. 29, tallying the number of people sleeping in RVs, tents, parks and at bus stops – any place not designed to be a regular sleeping accommodation. 

Gauthier, who participated in the count for the first time, said it felt good to be on the ground in the community on a cold morning. She wondered about the policy solutions that could eliminate homelessness. 

“How do we get to these individuals who are sleeping on a mattress here? And get them indoors, get them the services that they need?” Gauthier wondered. “I’m glad I’ve experienced this.” 

The point-in-time homelessness count is a federally mandated observational survey that takes place across the country. The county submits the results to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the results help guide the distribution of federal funding. 

“The point-in-time count is a tool that helps us reduce homelessness,” said Claire Cunningham, director of the county’s Human Services Agency, in an interview. “It helps us to understand the need, inform planning and establish eligibility for federal funding to address homelessness.” 

It’s not a perfect tool. Some organizations have criticized HUD’s visual street counting methodology, arguing that most homelessness is not visible and results in a significant underestimate of the true scope of the problem. Despite these shortcomings, Cunningham said that the data from the count provides an apples-to-apples comparison of homelessness numbers over time. For example, she said the county has seen an uptick in the number of older adults who are unhoused. 

Cunningham added that the county supplements the point-in-time count with its own monthly survey of unhoused individuals using a different methodology. 

Taken together, Cunningham said the data guides efforts to address homelessness. In the last few years, the county has expanded temporary housing options, obtained state funding to clear and relocate people in encampments, and used Measure K funds for emergency rental assistance, she said. 

Preliminary results of the one-day count will be released this summer while final results are expected in September. Two years ago, the count found 2,130 people experiencing homelessness in San Mateo County. 

How the point-in-time count works 

For those who volunteer, the day starts at 5 a.m. in territories divided by census tracts. Gauthier and Fernandez, along with Toy Lee of the San Mateo County Human Services Agency, allowed this reporter and a photojournalist to accompany them. 

Gauthier led us through the census tract, narrating the landscape of her hometown, where she served on the East Palo Alto City Council for more than a decade. We walked through Ravenswood Open Space Preserve, checking benches and marshland for signs of encampments. The area of the preserve where we walked, Gauthier noted, had once been a landfill. We drove through neighborhood streets and East Palo Alto City Hall, looking for people who had spent the night in vehicles. 

Gauthier directed us to circle the parking lot of a church, noting that homeless people occasionally camped there. An initial scan revealed a vacant lot, but as we drove out, Gauthier pointed out a man sitting on a rock in a copse of trees. They noted him in their tally. At another point, we drove by an RV on a quiet street. It had fogged windows, makeshift curtains and appeared to have a light on inside, Fernandez noted. These were clues that it was not abandoned; it was someone’s living space. The team marked the RV down in the app. 

We also scanned doorways at Willow Village, a Meta-owned complex near Menlo Park, where Meta is headquartered. We didn’t find any people experiencing homelessness there, but we saw security vehicles. We drove to another street, and at a stoplight, Gauthier spotted a homeless person in an alley behind a fast-food restaurant.  

In total, they tallied half a dozen RVs that had signs of a person living in them. They also counted five people who appeared to have slept outside: the two adults on the mattress, the man in the alley, a man at a bus stop and a woman on a bench. 

Toy Lee, who is the county’s director of program integrity and community services, has either planned or participated in every homelessness count since 2009. Being part of the count gives her insight into the struggle of finding a safe, warm and comfortable place to spend the night, she said.  

“It’s been fascinating to be in so many different environments,” Toy Lee said. “Looking for people makes you get some insight on how it’s like to have to search for a place to stay, and what are some of the factors.” 

Fernandez noted that while there have been meaningful efforts to address the problem of homelessness, there’s still a long way to go. 

“It’s a juxtaposition, right? You have Colibri Commons, who just opened up hundreds of new units for people who qualify,” said Fernandez about the affordable housing development in East Palo Alto that opened this summer. “And just across the way on a path, a newly paved, beautiful path, you have a gentleman sleeping with not enough blankets on a mattress.”

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