Outdated technology impacting solution to homeless crisis in SoCal, report says

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Outdated computer systems with data containing errors are just another component that could be hampering efforts to get unhoused people off the streets, according to a new report by the Associated Press.

The report found that basic information, such as whether or not a shelter bed is open, is often information that is not available.

In Los Angeles alone, more than 45,000 people are experiencing homelessness. With so many needing shelter, deficiencies in technology, like no online system to track the number of available shelter beds in L.A. County, are making it even more difficult to find people places to sleep.

The chief technology officer for Better Angels United, a nonprofit group focused on homelessness in Los Angeles, described L.A.’s technology as “systems that don’t talk to one another, lack of accurate data, nobody on the same page about what’s real and isn’t real.”

The lack of uniform practice for caseworkers to enter information into a central database can lead to the loss of misrecorded information, especially when written down on a notepad or a phone. That information can quickly become outdated with the delay between data collection and entry time.

The main federal data system, a homeless management information system, can be another bump on the road because it’s difficult to navigate on a phone since it was designed as a desktop application.

The current system that L.A. County uses does not talk to the federal system, forcing nonprofit organizations to re-enter data, once again, opening the door for numerical mistakes that could make the difference between someone sleeping in a shelter or out on the streets.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority says that work is underway to create a database of 23,000 beds by the end of the year, in hopes of improving how they use technology to address homelessness.