Annual count of homeless residents begins in Los Angeles, where tens of thousands live on streets
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County’s annual count of homeless residents began Tuesday evening — a crucial part of the region’s efforts to address the crisis of tens of thousands of people living on the streets.
Up to 6,000 volunteers from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority spread out for the centerpiece of the effort, the unsheltered street count.
The so-called “point-in-time” count will take place over three days and aims to estimate the number of people who are unhoused and what services they may need, such as mental health care or drug addiction treatment.
The LA County venture is the largest of similar deals in major cities across the country. The count, which also uses demographic surveys and shelter counts, is mandated by the federal government for cities to receive certain types of funding.
This year’s count comes amid growing public outrage over the perceived inability – despite costly efforts – to reduce the growing population of people living in cars, tents and makeshift street shelters.
The 2023 effort found that more than 75,500 people were homeless in LA County on any given night, a 9% increase from the year before. About 46,200 were in the city of Los Angeles, where public frustration has increased as tents have spread on sidewalks, in parks and other locations.
Since 2015, homelessness has increased by 70% in the province and 80% in the city.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined city and county officials Tuesday evening to start the count in the North Hollywood neighborhood of LA’s San Fernando Valley.
The count “is an important tool to address the homelessness crisis,” Bass said in a statement. “Homelessness is an emergency, and we will all need to work together to address this emergency.”
On her first day on the job in December 2022, Bass declared a state of emergency due to homelessness. A year into her term, the mayor, a Democrat, announced that more than 21,000 unhoused people had been moved to rented hotels or other temporary shelters by 2023, a 28% increase from the previous year. Dozens of drug-infested street camps have been cleared and housing projects are in the pipeline, she said last month.
LA County City Hall, the City Council and the Board of Supervisors have said they plan to work together to address the crisis. Progress has not always been made, despite the billions spent on programs to curb homelessness.
Homelessness remains extremely visible across California, with people living in tents and cars and sleeping outside on sidewalks and under freeway overpasses.
The results of LA County’s homeless count are expected to be released in late spring or early summer.