After rising over the past five years, overall homelessness stabilized in Los Angeles this year, with fewer people living on the streets, according to the annual count released Friday.
The 2024 count, which represents a snapshot taken in January, appeared to show the effects of city and county programs to clear encampments by moving people from tents, makeshift shelters and vehicles to hotels, motels and other forms of temporary housing.
“These changes in both the city and the county mean that this year, across our region, more people are experiencing homelessness indoors, where they are safer, where they have food, showers and better access to medical services and otherwise,” said Paul Rubenstein, deputy director of external relations for the Los Angeles Homeless Authority, which is conducting the count.
LAHSA estimated there were 75,312 homeless people countywide, a 0.3% decrease compared to the previous year. In the city of Los Angeles, the number was 45,252, a decrease of 2.2%.
A homeless woman, right, waits as Inside Safe workers help people leave an encampment at 86th Street and Broadway on Wednesday.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Neither change was large enough to be considered statistically significant. But both broke steady upward trends that had seen the number of homeless people grow by more than 40% since 2018.
While acknowledging that “it's too early to call this a definitive trend,” Rubenstein said that “the numbers in this year's homeless count give us reason to be cautiously optimistic about the direction of homelessness across the country.” Los Angeles County.”
Reductions in the homeless and unsheltered population were more dramatic. The county's homeless population was estimated at 55,365, a decrease of 5.1%, and the city's homeless population was estimated at 29,275, a decrease of 10.4%.
Jennifer Hark Dietz, executive director of the nonprofit homeless services provider known as PATH, called the results an unqualified “win for Los Angeles.” The numbers show that when the city and county invest money in the right programs, they can achieve a decrease in the number of “people sleeping rough and a decrease in homelessness overall.”
“It definitely doesn't show us that we can slow down. We have to keep up the pace and hopefully even increase it. But I do think it gives us all a little bit of hope that we are going in the right direction,” he stated.
Inside Safe workers clean up a homeless encampment in South Los Angeles on Wednesday.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
LAHSA officials credited Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe program and close collaboration between city and county agencies for the decline in the number and percentage of people living on the streets.
The count came shortly after the first year of Bass’s Inside Safe initiative, which focused on some of the city’s largest and most problematic encampments. By mid-January, the initiative had conducted 34 encampment operations at sites stretching from Harbor City, near the Port of Los Angeles, to Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley.
At the time of the count, Inside Safe had moved 2,087 people into temporary housing. Even accounting for the 400 people who became homeless again and the 329 who received permanent housing, that represents more than half of the increase in the city's housing population.
Annetta Wells of Inside Safe instructs employees before entering a homeless encampment in South Los Angeles on Wednesday to help move people into motel rooms.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
In recent months, Inside Safe has taken another 722 people off the streets. The county's corresponding program, Pathway Home, had conducted 10 encampment operations by mid-January, placing 449 people in temporary housing.
Inside Safe and Pathway Home have secured permanent housing for 634 people.
LAHSA Executive Director Va Lecia Adams Kellum, who created the model for Inside Safe’s encampment cleanups on the Venice Boardwalk as director of the Venice-based St. Joseph Center, attributed that success to a clearer focus on unsheltered homeless people.
“I want to try to get people in and out of the camps quickly and safely – not doing a cleanup, not moving people, not sweeping them from one area to another, I think that's the most encouraging thing.”
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who chairs the council’s housing and homelessness committee, said the new numbers represent a “pretty big shift” after years of increases. At the same time, she warned that the city faces “tough fiscal realities” that will make it harder to achieve additional reductions.
The city faces serious budget problems. State funding for shelter beds remains at risk and Proposition HHH funds, which helped fund permanent housing, have already been largely spent.
“I think we'll be able to continue this trend this year,” he said. “Continuing this trend over the long term will be more challenging and will require us to work harder to ensure we're creating a more efficient system.”
As the number of homeless and unsheltered people decreased, the number of people receiving shelter increased significantly.
In the city of Los Angeles, the number of homeless people in some form of shelter rose 17.7%, or 15,977. Countywide, that number rose 12.7%, to 22,947.
Historically, the percentage of homeless people receiving shelter has been around 25%. In January, it was 35% in the city and 30% in the county, according to the count.
Dwight Thomas, 62, gathers his belongings at a tent encampment at 86th Street and Broadway on Wednesday after Inside Safe employees found him a place to stay.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Chronic homelessness, defined as being homeless for a continuous year or at least four times in three years, also decreased 6.8% in the county, to just under 30,000.
Another encouraging sign was the increase in the number of housing placements. The county's Homeless Initiative reported that 27,951 people had obtained permanent housing, a 24% increase from 2022. The figure could include some people placed more than once and does not break down how many of those people came from the streets, shelters or temporary housing.
“At this rate, if we could prevent anyone else from becoming homeless today, we could end homelessness in just a few years,” Rubenstein said. “Unfortunately, the root causes of homelessness are stronger than ever.
“To prevent homelessness, the Los Angeles region must reverse decades of underbuilding affordable housing, help more people achieve economic stability, and address the shrinking social safety net.”
The figures came just days after the county Board of Supervisors cleared the way for a ballot measure that would double the size of the countywide sales tax that raises money for homeless services, raising it from a quarter of a cent to a half-cent. The measure, scheduled for a Nov. 5 ballot, would also raise money for affordable housing production.
Inside Safe workers clean up a homeless encampment in South Los Angeles
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
While the numbers offered some glimmers of hope, Los Angeles’ streets, sidewalks and freeways show there’s still much work to be done. Just outside City Hall, the corner of 1st and Spring streets, site of an Inside Safe operation earlier this year, has about 27 tents and other makeshift structures.
On Wednesday, Bass' Inside Safe program moved about 20 people from the area of Franklin and Argyle avenues in Hollywood. The next day, at least four tents were in the area.
Two other homeless groups estimated separately experienced significant declines. The estimate of 2,406 transition-age homeless youth was down 16.2% and that of 2,991 veterans was down 22.9%.
For the second year, LAHSA’s statistical team at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work provided a margin of error indicating the actual number for the Los Angeles Continuum of Care (the entire county except Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale) could be 1,592 more or less than the estimate.
That figure represents the uncertainty in the demographic survey USC conducts after the field count, in which thousands of volunteers walk and drive through nearly every census tract in the county and list every person they conclude is homeless and every tent, makeshift shelter, car, van and recreational vehicle.
Tanaka Richardson, right, and his cousin Tatayana Noles gather their belongings at a tent camp in South Los Angeles on Wednesday before being moved to a shelter.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Based on the count of approximately 4,000 people in the survey, USC statisticians calculate how many people, on average, live in each of those homes. Those factors are multiplied by the count to produce the estimate.
Although estimates of the total number of homeless people were too close to those of last year to conclude that the problem has decreased, estimates of the decline in the unsheltered population were well outside the margin of error.
Los Angeles' results were similar to those of neighboring cities that reported their figures earlier.
For the first time in seven years, the city of Long Beach saw the number of homeless people decline. Long Beach officials said there were 3,376 homeless people counted during the latest count, down 2.1% from 3,447 in 2023.
In Pasadena, the number remained unchanged at 556.
In contrast, Orange County recorded 7,322 homeless people, 28% more than in 2022.
