HOMELESS COUNT IN A.V. DOUBLES POPULATION GROWTH, HIGHER RENTS LEAD TO LOCAL INCREASE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick  Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The Antelope Valley's homeless population more than doubled since the late 1990s, according to a new Los Angeles County census that counted homeless people sleeping on streets, hunted out homeless encampments and surveyed households about whether friends or relatives were sleeping on sofas or in garages.

The local homeless population increased to more than 3,500 people as the valley's overall population grew and as increasing property values led to home buyers moving into houses that had been rentals and hiking rents to pay higher mortgages.

``That's been our No. 1 problem,'' said Patti Rivetti, program manager for the Homeless Solutions Access Center in Lancaster. ``We have people coming in and saying, I lived in this rental for five years and I was only paying $600 a month and now they want $1,200.''

The report released Thursday by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority stemmed from the first comprehensive census of homelessness in Los Angeles County, conducted in early 2005.

For Antelope Valley charities that help the homeless, the census was important because they've been limited since the 1990s to 2 percent of homeless funds countywide.

The survey estimated that the Antelope Valley's homeless population actually acounts for nearly 4 percent of the countywide total.

``We felt their method was something we could all agree was the most scientific we could get,'' Antelope Valley United Way executive Diane Grooms said of the census.

The Antelope Valley's homeless range from people sleeping on a friend's or relative's couch to people who live in old campers in backyards or in encampments in the desert or the foothills.

The valley contains hundreds of homeless families, mainly single women with children, for whom rising rents are especially a problem, advocates say. Skilled workmen who lost a job because of illness and people with drug or alcohol addiction are also among the homeless.

``We've got families who've been homeless for one day or two months because the landlord sold their home or the rent got too high. We've got clients who have lived in the desert such a long time they're comfortable with it. We've got people who are homeless due to mental illness,'' said Rivetti.

A local survey in 1998 placed the valley's homeless population at about 1,600, meaning it has more than doubled, Grooms said.

The latest report says 3,544 people are homeless in the Antelope Valley on any given night, and more than 7,100 people are homeless during the course of a year. More than 2,100 are chronically homeless, the report said.

Of the one-night homeless figure, nearly two-thirds are men, and more than 300 are children, the report said. Nearly two-thirds are drug or alcohol users, and nearly one-third are mentally ill, the report said.

The Homeless Solutions Access Center was created by the Antelope Valley's Homeless Coalition, organized in 1998 by the United Way to coordinate the efforts of more than 30 government agencies and charities that help the helpless.

The coalition was intended both to improve the understanding of homelessness locally and to improve the efficiency of services to the homeless, as well as to obtain grants for which the individual charities couldn't qualify, Grooms said.

Since 1998, the valley has received about $7 million in funding for the homeless, including money that goes to operate the Lancaster Community Shelter and the Homeless Solutions Access Center.

The center puts homeless people in touch with other agencies and charities that have services they need. The center tries to find a shelter, a relative or a ``transitional housing'' program in a local home to take them in, and will pay bus fare for them to get to a relative or shelter willing to take them.

Last year, more than 2,500 people came to the center for help, including 251 families, mainly women with children, Rivetti said.

Many of the valley's homeless are on Social Security disability income, which pays $500 to $800 - not enough to rent an apartment, Rivetti said. Even the ``transitional housing'' homes that give people a bed, meals and help getting their lives on track charge fees that can be $350 to $500 a month, she said.

``It's all about not just housing them - getting them a bed to sleep in - but to help them help themselves eventually,'' Rivetti said.