The population of single homeless adults in the South Bay and Harbor Area is growing at a time when resources are shrinking, presenting a challenge for outreach workers, local cities and law enforcement officials.

On any given night, about 6,000 homeless people live on the streets of cities west of Long Beach and south of Los Angeles, which offer not only a temperate climate but among the most scenic coastlines in Southern California.

Countywide, there are about 16 percent more homeless people than there were two years ago, according to a census count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

A regional planning body called the Los Angeles Continuum of Care organizes the annual distribution of roughly $70 million for the homeless from local, state and federal government agencies, but in the South Bay nearly all resources are geared toward women with children and domestic violence survivors, said Mark Silverbush, chairman of the South Bay Coalition for the Homeless.

“There aren’t many programs in the South Bay,” Silverbush said. “There’s not too much in the way of outreach. And, even if there was, there are no programs and no beds to connect them to.”

There are 184 emergency shelter beds available in the South Bay and Harbor Area on any given night, along with 756 transitional housing beds and 246 permanent supportive housing units mostly for those in sober-living recovery, according to the South Bay Coalition for the Homeless.

Because of a new federal mandate, programs will begin shifting their resources this year from transitional housing and support services to finding permanent housing for homeless individuals and families.

Toberman Neighborhood Center in San Pedro began a new program this year for families with children that focuses on making sure homeless kids are reaching healthy development goals, said program manager Christine Jordan. The organization’s main focus is providing food baskets, employment support services, gang intervention help, and finding shelter for children and their mothers. Unfortunately, fathers often have to stay in separate shelters from the rest of the family, Jordan said.

“We do mostly immediate crisis intervention,” Jordan said.

Harbor Interfaith Services in San Pedro is similarly focused on helping families and children, but the organization also provides thousands of food baskets a year to single people, as well as rental assistance and moving costs. Its shelter beds are primarily for women and children, but Executive Director Tahia Hayslet said her staff works to get anyone who comes in the door into a bed.

If someone walks in seeking shelter but there are no beds in the South Bay, “he might have to take a bus to Lancaster or Los Angeles to whatever agency has an available bed,” Hayslet said.

“If nothing is available, we’d give him a hotel voucher for the night and tell him to come back in the morning at 9 a.m. so we can start making calls again. There aren’t enough beds and there are times there’s nothing we can do, but our goal is to make sure they at least have a place for the night.”

The South Bay Coalition for the Homeless was created in 2010 to help combine resources and boost services for homeless and working poor individuals in the area. At the group’s monthly meeting last week, local providers heard about a public-private partnership to reduce homelessness that has found success in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health’s Self-Help and Recovery Exchange, or SHARE, created a program called Collaborative Housing, in which cheap houses are rented to homeless people who are then given support services to keep them there.

Participants must attend self-help meetings and must have at least $500 per month in income for rent. While there are 240 houses in this program across the county, the South Bay has very few, program coordinator Jim Sullivan said.

“The South Bay really lacks in resources so we really want more of these houses here,” Silverbush said.

The need clearly exists. Complaints about homeless people sleeping in doorways, vacant houses and behind businesses are up, according to law enforcement officials at several South Bay departments.

The reaction to the growing problem has forced some officers to step into the role of social worker.

“We are trying to identify our transient population. We are trying to find out who they are and what their needs are,” said Redondo Beach police Sgt. Dave Christian, a 25-year veteran of the department who has spent six months helping the agency to collect data on the beach city’s homeless population. “But it’s difficult because we don’t have the manpower.”

Despite limited staffing, the Redondo Beach Police Department has used questionnaires to collect health data on the homeless population within the city. The aim is to comb through the information in the coming months and begin directing homeless people to the services available in the area.

“The Police Department is trying to identify what services are needed and what service providers best provide those needs to the homeless,” Christian said.

Efforts similar to those in Redondo Beach, where officers distribute information about homeless services, also are underway in Torrance.

Back alleys, piers and vacant upscale homes in Hermosa Beach have long been popular with a band of a dozen or so South Bay homeless men and women, police Detective Mick Gaglia said.

“It’s a good place to get food and a few bucks,” Gaglia said. “People give them handouts and local businesses will hire them and give them little jobs like sweeping up.

“I think part of the reason we have seen an increase in our transient population is because we have so many service providers in the area, they can come here and get food, they can come here and get clothed,” Christian said.

Indeed, one 35-year-old homeless man named Travis Richards slowly walked The Strand in Hermosa Beach one recent afternoon, shoeless and holding nothing but a few cigarette butts.

A group of outreach workers from Los Angeles-based People Assisting the Homeless approached him to find out what he would need to get off the streets. Among their questions: Where are you sleeping right now? Do you have any income? Do you have a driver’s license or Social Security card? What do you need?

“I just need directions to the Social Security office,” Richards said. “I’m out of the hospital now. I got some junk food and cigarettes. I’m trying to find a lighter.”

Richards said he spends his evenings sleeping in Redondo Beach “on the sidewalk against the wall.”

He said he survives on South Bay streets by keeping a low profile from people who would beat him up, or police officers who sometimes tell him to move on.

The influx of more homeless people into the area has prompted a push-back from local businesses.

“A lot of them sleep on the beach. We do get some business that complain they like to hang out in front of the liquor stores,” Gaglia said. “A lot of them are trespassing, a lot of homeless people find vacant homes, construction sites, crawl spaces in between buildings.”

The very nature of the population, one that is constantly on the move, presents a complex issue for law enforcement.

“The majority of the homeless we encounter are encamped at Alondra Park at night and they head out during the day to the numerous faith-based organizations to get meals,” Gardena police Lt. Uikilifi Niko said.

Gardena police don’t encounter many homeless people in the area, but as they move through the region searching for a meal or panhandling, the homeless often have run-ins with the law.

In Redondo Beach, Sgt. Christian said, “We’ve seen increased calls for service related to the transient population so it’s something that has to be dealt with.”

Transients often commit crimes of opportunity, like rummaging through an unlocked car for spare change or small electronics, Christian said.

But often the infractions committed by the homeless are simple nuisances.

“Businesses in Torrance are saying that the homeless are camping around their businesses, they are defecating, urinating and leaving trash behind,” Torrance police Sgt. Robert Watt said.

Officers cite the homeless for the infractions, and those citations often turn into warrants because the transients either can’t or don’t show up for court. Many of the South Bay’s transients have warrants for their arrest but taking them into custody often creates a larger problem.

“We do run into homeless people with warrants, but where do you house them?” Watt said. “They have a lot of medical issues and we end up releasing them on their own recognizance.”