The constant caption attached to this year’s L.A. County Homeless Count was definitely worth noting: for the first time in four years, the homeless population has dropped.

This year represented a 4 percent dip over last year, with 53,195 individuals experiencing homelessness throughout the county. Of those, the vast majority, 40,690, are black or Latino. And 4,188 of those individuals are situated within Supervisory District 4, the district which represents the entirety of Long Beach on the county level.

However, age is the underlying focal point of the count.

While every other age group saw decreases in experiencing homeless, our two most vulnerable populations—our youth and our seniors—were the only populations to see increases.

Among those under 18, homelessness rose 2 percent. While the increase, despite how small, is nothing to applaud, there is a silver lining: For the first time, over half—53 percent—of the 3,306 youths experiencing homelessness are sheltered. Of those youths, nearly a quarter have experienced domestic violence.

Meanwhile, the number of people age 18 to 24 who experienced domestic violence skyrocketed to 34 percent, likely due to an increase in risky activity to garner money or because of social connections.

But most alarming are our seniors, who saw a 22 percent jump in homelessness from last year’s numbers—numbers that are reflected in Long Beach’s own homeless count, separate from the county census. 

Our city conducts its own count, along with Glendale and Pasadena—and that complicates matters. (The City of L.A., by comparison, interconnects its count with the county’s to cross-reference data.)

For one, we only tabulate our homeless every other year and, rather than partnering with the county on the years we don’t do a local count, we instead compare biannual counts that lack nuance in trends. For example, had we partnered with the county this year, we could perhaps get an idea of how our senior homeless population increased 13 percent from 2015 to 2017.

And much like the county’s count, our city was proud to proclaim that its seen homelessness drop by 21 percent over two years—widely ignoring that one of our most marginalized populations saw a significant increase not only in our city but countywide as well.

I would venture to say that the vast amount of homeless seniors suffer from a lack of proper health coverage, are swamped with medical bills, or simply can’t find housing suitable for their incomes. However, this point is anecdotal because neither of these counts corresponded with one another and stick to a specific set of questions, largely revolving around basic physical and mental health, domestic violence, and disabilities.

Having year-to-year data, particularly in this housing climate, is essential—and can provide us enormously important data that, frankly put, isn’t worth putting off for two years at the expense of the suffering of our most vulnerable.