The South Bay will commence their annual homeless count this week in coordination with the 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, a countywide event that brings thousands of residents together to visually count the unhoused individuals in their communities.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) uses the data compiled each year to keep track of not only how many individuals are experiencing homelessness in the county, but the demographics of those individuals.

The results of the 2025 count in the South Bay area including the Harbor Gateway and Inglewood area, but excluding Long Beach, were a total of 5,424 unhoused individuals – 3,469 unsheltered and 1,955 sheltered. This remained similar to 2024’s numbers which saw a total of 5,428 homeless individuals.

Of the South Bay and beach cities, Torrance had the highest number of homeless individuals in 2025 with 221 people – up approximately 28% from 2024. However, the majority of those individuals reside within shelters. The count also calculated the total number of improvised dwellings like cars, vans, RVs, tents and makeshift shelters – 134 in Torrance which is about 15% more than in 2024.

Hawthorne also had relatively high numbers in comparison to other cities in the area with 137 homeless people in the city in 2025. In contrast to Torrance, though, the majority – 108 individuals – were unsheltered. The count also showed 88 improvised dwellings in 2025. These numbers remained similar to 2024’s count.

The beach cities had smaller populations of homeless people with Hermosa Beach at 17, Redondo Beach at 37 and Manhattan Beach at two. The City of Carson also had a lower number of homeless individuals compared to the other larger cities with 46 people counted and 74 improvised dwellings. However, none of these individuals were sheltered.

The 2025 homeless count of the cities that make up the Palos Verdes Peninsula resulted in only nine people and while low, this is an increase from two individuals in 2024.

Many cities in the South Bay use the annual homeless count to inform citywide homeless outreach and services.

For example, the South Bay Cities Council of Governments launched a “Functional Zero Homelessness” program, providing measurable benchmarks for cities to follow and resources for the unhoused. The organization even received the Eureka Award, an award from the California Association of Councils of Governments highlighting creative leadership and thinking, for the program in 2025.

So far, Redondo Beach has been the first city to make progress using Functional Zero, reducing homelessness cases from 261 in 2017 to 25 as of mid-May 2025, with the median duration of time on the streets being 14 days. To reach Functional Zero, the number of individuals who become homeless within the city must be less than or equal to the number of individuals who move out of homelessness over a six month period and the city’s unhoused population – as a whole – must have a median street duration of less than 90 days.

Redondo Beach was able to achieve this through multiple initiatives including the opening of a 15-unit interim pallet shelter, a project Homekey housing site, client aid and single room occupancy beds and the establishment of a homeless court – a program that gives homeless defendants the opportunity to complete social programs in exchange for clearing their backgrounds.

Hermosa Beach has joined Redondo Beach to provide the homeless court program to their residents and has joined in a partnership with the South Bay Cities Council of Governments to take part in the Functional Zero Homelessness program.

The City of Torrance, like Redondo Beach, has also created interim housing for unhoused individuals with the 3290 Temporary Housing Village which consists of 40 tiny homes equipped with air conditioning and shared facilities providing bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities. All residents are also able to receive three free meals per day, case management, permanent housing assistance, job assistance, career development support and childcare assistance.

Torrance’s additional outreach efforts as of November 2025 has resulted in 45 individuals permanently housed, 58 enrolled in Venice Family Clinic, 36 people matched to vouchers and 58 homeless encampment clean ups.

Manhattan Beach’s outreach efforts have resulted in services provided 137 individuals and 23 interim housing referrals attained.

Whether these efforts in the South Bay have paid off, however, will be determined on Thursday, Jan. 22 when the South Bay community counts the number of people sleeping on the streets.

Residents are still able to volunteer and can find a deployment site in their city by registering at https://count.lahsa.org/pages/volunteer-registration.

After meeting at the deployment site, groups of two or three will drive around and visually count those sleeping in areas that are not intended for human shelter. All counts will take place in the evening, at around 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. to ensure the count is most accurate.

South Bay Homeless Count Deployment Sites

Torrance: 8 p.m. at Ken Miller Recreation Center, 3341 Torrance Blvd.
Hawthorne: 7 p.m. at Betty Ainsworth Sports Center, 3851 W El Segundo Blvd.
Hermosa Beach: 8 p.m. at Hermosa Beach City Hall, 1315 Valley Drive.
Redondo Beach: 8 p.m. at Perry Park Senior Center, 2308 Rockefeller Lane.
Manhattan Beach: 8 p.m. at Joslyn Community Center, 1601 N. Valley Drive.
Carson: 8 p.m. at Carson Event Center, 801 E. Carson St.
Palos Verdes Peninsula communities: 8 p.m. at Rolling Hills Estates City Hall, 4045 Palos Verdes Drive.