New technology could help Riverside County track, assess the needs of its homeless population

Corinne S Kennedy

Palm Springs Desert Sun

James Williamson, center, talks to a homeless man in downtown Palm Springs during the annual point-in-time count, Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

Shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, about 50 volunteers left the Palm Springs police training center, fanning out across the city with clip boards and bags filled with hats, wool socks and bars of soap.

Dividing up into groups of three with a map of a section of the city they were supposed to canvass, volunteers set out, greeting homeless residents and asking them to answer survey questions including their age, race, how long and how many times they’ve been homeless, if they use drugs or alcohol and if they have any mental or physical health issues or disabilities.

Across Riverside County, other volunteers did the same, taking part in the annual point-in-time homeless count, assessing how many residents in each city in the area don’t have a permanent roof over their head.

The results of the count have real implications for cities. Valley cities don’t have social services departments and rely on county programs, which get money from the state, and grants from private foundations. Having an accurate count of the number of homeless residents in a city, and a rough outline of their needs, helps municipalities make a case to the county and to foundations about how much funding they need for homelessness-related programs.

This year Palm Springs’ count was also part of a pilot program, seeing if a mobile app could be used to accurately and more easily record data collected by volunteers, which can then be transmitted to the housing authority and other county offices in real time.

Autumn Williams Parson is one of the people counted by volunteers as homeless during the annual point-in-time count in Palm Springs, Tuesday, January 23, 2018. Ms. Parson has been living in and out of hotels in Palm Springs since November.

Christina Farber, commercial health account manager at geographic information system developer Esri, accompanied a team around downtown Palm Springs, shadowing volunteer James Williamson and entering all the same data into the app that he recorded on paper, to see how accurate and reliable the system was.

“It will really help with finding patterns,” Farber said. “They can see patterns they maybe wouldn’t on paper maps.”

If the test was successful, future counts could be done entirely through mobile apps, which could make the process faster and make the data analysis easier.

Esri, which partners with Riverside County and other jurisdictions around the country, developed the mobile app, which records the answers to the survey questions as well as the exact time and location of contact.

The app is also responsive, providing additional follow up questions if someone surveyed responds “yes” to certain questions and providing different sets of questions to those who are older or younger than 25.

James Williamson and Christina Farber discuss survey questions after speaking with a homeless resident in Palm Springs during the annual point-in-time homeless count.

Williamson said using the app may allow for more contacts and elicit better responses, since approaching someone on the street with a smartphone could be less intimidating than with a clipboard.

“It is getting much easier to do this now, because the homeless people here are now used to police and health workers who approach them all the time,” he said.

The valley’s homeless population has increased in recent years and discussions about how best to address homelessness, as well as issues often related to it like substance abuse or mental health problems, were central to the recent Palm Springs City Council elections.

Palm Springs Police and other local law enforcement have dedicated homeless liaison officers to work with homeless residents. Palm Springs also has two behavioral health specialists that work with homeless people in the city and the City Council recently appropriated funds–along with a Desert Healthcare Foundation grant–to hire two additional mental health experts.

Farber and Williamson’s group, which surveyed a section of downtown roughly between Ramon and Alejo Roads, made contact with about 20 homeless individuals Tuesday, about half of whom answered some or all of the survey questions.

Riverside County officials will collect and analyze all the data recorded during the point-in-time count, and will release a detailed report in the spring.

Corinne Kennedy covers the west valley for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at Corinne.Kennedy@DesertSun.com or on Twitter @CorinneSKennedy