Last Thursday, Rowan and I rose before the crack of dawn to participate in the Redlands point-in time homeless count. We drove to a LDS church on Wabash Ave and were both assigned to a team of four comprised of ourselves and two Mormon men working to complete their missions. The organizers at the church designated us to a particular spot (a rectangle bounded by Lugonia Ave, Redlands Blvd, Nevada St, and Alabama St) in which we were supposed to drive around and scour the landscape for unhoused individuals. Once we were given a clipboard with a bunch of surveys, bright orange safety vests, and supply bags intended to be given to unhoused people after answering our survey questions, we were on our way, ready to locate unhoused people.

Our group ended up finding/encountering about 7 or 8 unhoused people inside the bounds of our assigned area. We located some unhoused people living beside the abandoned railroad track, and others either panhandling or walking around. Most were willing to answer the questions listed in the surveys we as volunteers asked to them, though some chose not to do so. The ones who did choose to engage with us seemed to believe that providing their information and contributing to research on unhoused people was an effort that would ultimately benefit themselves and others who were going through experiences similar to their own.

I imagine that those who chose not to engage with us did so because, in their cases, divulging information such as one’s gender, race, age, and medical history to volunteers explicitly saying that they’re interested in collected data about homeless people would feel like a blatant reminder of how their existence is unfortunate. Generally, I found the the way in which the survey stood as a reminder of people’s plight interesting, but I still enjoyed participating in the count nonetheless. I was able to engage in conversations with almost every individual we met who was living on the streets, which was really quite rewarding.