Homeless Count

Last Tuesday, from 9:00pm-6:00am, everyone in my office joined with law enforcement, private security forces, businesses from the area, other social service agencies from the Hollywood area, volunteers from the faith community, politicians, and property owners from the area. Our task: to conduct a snapshot count of Hollywood's homeless.

I was a team captain for my area, and with the help of four other people, we set out in the field and counted our area. I was given a map of places to count, and was looking not only for people sleeping on the street, but also persons encamped in cars, vans and RV's. We also had two Senior Lead Officers from the police department following us in a squad car, to make sure that we were safe.

The night was very successful, everyone was safe in all their counting, and hopefully the report of homeless numbers will aid local politicians in coming up with strategies and policies to help homeless people in the future.

The count consisted of two parts: the first part, from 11pm-2am, was done in the area of the map that I was given. The second part, from 2am-5am, was a separate count to count the number of youth in the area. Besides seeing a coyote running down Hollywood Blvd at 4:00am, the evening went as planned. There was a shooting close to the area that some of us were counting, and as my team and I were being picked up by one of my co-workers to go back to the dispatch center, my co-worker Brendan asked if anyone would mind if we prayed. He was driving the van to get us back. Granted, I knew that he and a few other people in the van were Christians. But there were also some people in the van who were markedly uncomfortable- for example, someone who worked with the city's Chamber of Commerce. Brendan started to pray for the people who had been in the shooting, for their families and for the person that they were still looking for. This moment to me, praying at 2:30am in the morning in a minivan filled with people from different walks of life, is one of my favorite memories of the year so far. Being able to pray for the unnamed people we hadn't even known, while we were working this strange shift, was such a testimony to the power of God and the fact that He kept us safe in the midst of the shooting. Some of my co-workers actually heard the shots from where they were counting.

I also felt very honored, humbled and blessed to get to be a team captain. God is teaching me that I can lead! I was very scared at first (if you knew how bad I was at reading maps, you would be, too!) but then felt God's leading and guiding hand with me and my group for the whole time. The air of collaboration and sharing that night between agencies and people from all different walks of life was so amazing. It was simply one of the most rewarding things that I have been involved in all year.