Los Angeles Homeless Population Grows 9 Percent in County, 10 Percent in City

LOS ANGELES—Despite major investments in housing and intervention programs, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Los Angeles area continues to climb, with results of the most recent count released on June 29 showing a 9 percent year-over-year increase in homelessness in the county, and a 10 percent jump in the city.

According to the results of the point-in-time count conducted in January, there were 75,518 people experiencing homelessness in the county, and 46,260 in the city of Los Angeles.

That’s up from 69,144 in the county last year and 41,980 in the city.

The figures continue a steady climb in the number of Southland homeless people over the past five years. In 2018, there were 52,765 homeless counted in the county, and 31,285 in the city.

“These results are disappointing,” Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Janice Hahn said in a statement. “It is frustrating to have more people fall into homelessness even as we are investing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and resources into efforts to bring people inside.

“I hold out hope that the new partnership between the county and City of Los Angeles will make a difference and help us more effectively address this crisis,” Hahn said. “2023 needs to be a watershed year for us where we turn these trends around.”

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint powers authority coordinated by both the city and county of Los Angeles, coordinated the count, which was conducted between Jan. 24–26 across the county.

Volunteers worked in groups of four to count the number of unsheltered individuals, tents, vehicles, and makeshift shelters in their census tract.

In January, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority officials stated that the one-time federal pandemic assistance programs ending could lead to more housing insecurity and fewer resources for re-housing systems to respond.

The homeless services officials previously stated that, for the 2023 count, they would deploy make-up count teams to make sure every census tract is counted, and consider tracts that do not have data to be uncounted.

The agency took several steps to improve this year’s count, including implementing a new counting app, hiring a demographer and two data scientists, simplifying volunteer training, and adding accountability measures.

The annual count began in 2016 to provide the county with analysis and trends of people experiencing homelessness, and to provide a blueprint for distributing homelessness program funds.