More than one thousand homeless people counted in Imperial County

The Imperial Valley Continuum of Care Council has taken on the task of counting the homeless population in the Imperial County.

The council’s committee has released a summary report of this years point in time count.

This year’s results show over 1,413 homeless people are living in the Imperial County.

The IV Continuum of Care Council conducted their two day point in time count on January 25, 2019.

Volunteers surveyed homeless throughout the Imperial County.

Results from the summary report show 1,225 of those homeless are unsheltered.

Martha Olmos and her husband have been feeding homeless in the Imperial Valley for over 8 years.

She says the Imperial Valley is in need of more resources for the homeless.

“We need to have shelters and maybe a facility, we need social workers and behavioral health to come in because they are mentally ill and there are young people out there,” said Olmos.

“Imperial Valley is getting worse. We always see a different number, our regulars come, but there’s different people,” said Olmos.

According to records from last years point in time count, this years total number of homeless people in imperial county decreased by 80 people.

“You can’t consider them as homeless, they’re champions because we are trying to change their lives to give them hope. There’s a lot of people out there that are donating to us, they want to be a blessing to people and give them hope again,” said Marco Olmos, Called to Serve worker.

The report released is only a summary of the point in time count.

The Imperial Valley Continuum of Care Council has partnered with San Diego State University IV Campus to further dissect the data.