Supervisor Kathryn Barger introduced a motion Tuesday that aims to improve upon the way in which county officials conducts homeless counts.

In a motion that was approved by her fellow board members, Barger instructed the county’s chief executive officer to explore new methods by which Los Angeles can use improved analytics to effectively identify homeless populations.

“The ability to collect critical information about who is homeless, where and how they are experiencing homelessness, and why they initially fell into homelessness will allow us to target critical supportive services and housing more effectively,” read the official motion. “Informed, strategic and appropriate allocation of these vital resources is required to successfully assist individuals and families in permanently exiting cycles of homelessness.”

Currently, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) produces an annual tally known as the “Point-In-Time” (PIT), which counts the number of persons who are homeless on a single night. This is then used to create a demographic survey that gives insights into the causes, effects and groups most represented in homeless populations.

But Barger argues that the definition of “homeless” used by the county to create PIT is limited. LAHSA is required to use the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of “homelessness,” which results in limiting parameters.

For example, individuals who have spent the majority of the previous 30 nights in places such as an apartment, home, emergency shelter, prison or group home are not captured in the PIT count or survey, according to officials.

The county’s second system, known as the Homeless Population Estimate (HPE), does take from a larger sample size, but the definition for “homeless” is based on the reporting done by six different county agencies who all have their own definition on the criteria for homelessness, officials said.

Barger has therefore asked the county’s CEO to continue working with those same local agencies and community stakeholders, but to expand his cooperation with university researchers, who are producing “effective data analytics tools” that will “be essential in curbing the inflow of people newly becoming homeless.”

The motion calls for the CEO to work closer with labs out of universities such as USC, UCLA and the University of Chicago, who are independently working to create better statistical models and systems that would be proactive solutions to predicting groups and individuals at risk of becoming homeless, according to officials.

Barger’s motion says that these researchers can help give the county “new data collection tools to more effectively measure existing populations of homeless individuals and families and predict future homelessness.”

With its passage, the county CEO now has 90 days to review and report on all improvements that can be made.

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