The population of people living outdoors in the city of L.A. grew by 7.9% between early 2025 and 2026, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA. <\/p>\n
When including people in shelters, a total of 45,194 people were living either outside, in vehicles and tents, or in homeless shelters.<\/p>\n
The total homelessness count was up 3.4% in the city of L.A. Across L.A. County, the overall homeless population increased more slightly, by 1.2%, to 73,040, while unsheltered homelessness rose by 3.3% countywide. <\/p>\n
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The city and county overall upticks are within the count’s margin of error and not considered “statistically significant,” LAHSA said. <\/p>\n
The findings are a setback for the region \u2014 especially for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass<\/a>, who is campaigning for reelection against City Councilmember Nithya Raman and frequently touts prior declines in the homeless counts as evidence her approach is working.<\/p>\n Bass, who took office at the end of 2022 and set addressing homelessness as her top priority, was not at the homeless count news conference Friday \u2014 a departure from the previous three years. <\/p>\n She released a video message ahead of the news briefing:<\/p>\n The latest count took place in January of this year. The prior count was in February of last year, following a delay due to the January 2025 wildfires. The city\u2019s unsheltered population grew to about 29,000, after previously dropping a total of 17.5% across the first two years of counts in Bass\u2019 mayoral term.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the city\u2019s sheltered population \u2014 people living in group shelters, hotel rooms and tiny homes \u2014 declined to around 16,000 at the time of the count. <\/p>\n Local officials expressed frustration over the results. <\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like we had turned a corner these past few years and this latest count feels like a setback,\u201d said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn. <\/p>\n \u201cThis year\u2019s numbers are disappointing, but not surprising,\u201d said a statement from Councilmember Nithya Raman, who has chaired the city council\u2019s homelessness committee for the last several years and is running for mayor against Bass.<\/p>\n \u201cLeadership at City Hall has not shown the willingness to shift toward an approach that actually moves people into permanent housing,\u201d she added. \u201cThese results make clear that the Mayor\u2019s approach is not working well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n A dramatic lead-up to the count\u2019s release<\/p>\n In an unusual move, Bass acknowledged that L.A.\u2019s numbers had gone up<\/a> before the count\u2019s official release. She responded to a report late Wednesday by Fox 11<\/a> citing anonymous sources who had been briefed on the findings. On Friday, Gita O\u2019Neill, LAHSA\u2019s interim CEO, said the results were \u201cleaked to media early.\u201d<\/p>\n In statements earlier this week, Bass blamed the local increase in homelessness on a range of factors, primarily state funding cuts she said led to fewer permanent housing placements and some federal policy changes she said worsened the affordability crisis and caused instability. <\/p>\n \u201cFor two years straight, we drove down homelessness by historic margins \u2014 but as expected, last year our efforts ultimately couldn\u2019t keep up with policies and funding cuts at the federal and state levels that pushed more people onto the streets,\u201d Bass said in a statement.<\/p>\n Last year, the city and county\u2019s homeless populations dropped by 3.4% and 4%, respectively. The 2024 count also showed a decline \u2014 those numbers were smaller and within the count\u2019s margin of error. <\/p>\n L.A.\u2019s homeless count doesn\u2019t provide a complete picture of homelessness year-round. It doesn\u2019t include people who are couch surfing or living doubled up with others, people staying in motels on their own dime, or those inside hospitals and jails. <\/p>\n The point-in-time census \u2014 conducted by LAHSA across a few nights in January \u2014 provides a data snapshot. Local officials use it to gauge year-to-year fluctuations and it also helps the federal government determine how millions of dollars in federal homelessness grants flow.<\/p>\n That could be especially important this year, after the Trump administration suspended LAHSA from federal homelessness funding while it investigates alleged mismanagement by the agency. LAHSA sued to undo that federal freeze, with a hearing scheduled in U.S. District Court on Aug. 6.<\/p>\n Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass waits to speak during a news conference in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Mario Tama<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n How we got here<\/p>\n Los Angeles has long been the epicenter of U.S. homelessness. The city\u2019s unhoused population began surging about a decade ago \u2014 years before the national count did, and is now up 59% since 2016.<\/p>\n The crisis also peaked in L.A. before the rest of the country. L.A.\u2019s unhoused population crested in 2023. At a single point in time that year, 1 in 83 city residents were experiencing homelessness \u2014 1.2% of the city’s population or roughly six times the national rate, according to LAHSA and U.S. Census data. <\/p>\n Nationwide, the unhoused population count continued climbing for another year, reaching a record high in 2024 of 1 in 435 U.S. residents, or roughly 0.23% of the population, according to<\/a> the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. <\/p>\n That year, the city was home to just over 1% of the nation\u2019s total population, but nearly 6% of its unhoused population.<\/p>\n As L.A.\u2019s unhoused population multiplied, so did the taxpayer spending.<\/p>\n Voters in the city and county have repeatedly approved tax measures related to homelessness, adding billions of public dollars aimed at the crisis. <\/p>\n Together, Measure H, passed in 2017, Measure ULA, passed in 2022, and Measure A, passed in 2024, have increased city and county resources by about $6 billion. That’s on top of Measure HHH, a $1.2 billion bond voters approved in 2016 to build supportive housing.<\/p>\n In 2016, the city of Los Angeles budgeted about $139 million<\/a> a year to address homelessness. By 2026, the city’s annual homelessness budget has grown to nearly $1 billion, alongside growing L.A. County homelessness dollars. <\/p>\n Funding for LAHSA, a joint city-county homelessness agency, grew ten-fold since 2016 to more than $800 million.<\/p>\n While funding sources fluctuated, LAHSA revenues increased in the budget years preceding this year\u2019s homeless count, according to LAHSA\u2019s audited financial statements. <\/p>\n Between 2016 and 2025, the L.A. region\u2019s homeless services system roughly doubled in size from about 34,500 beds to about 69,600, according to HUD’s housing inventory reports<\/a> for the region.<\/p>\n Officials and experts have attributed much of L.A.\u2019s homelessness to a housing affordability crisis in which rent has become more unaffordable to people making very low incomes. L.A.\u2019s expanded shelter system has not kept pace with the number of people falling into homelessness. <\/p>\n LAHSA says the number of newly unhoused people seeking services each year has grown 30% between 2022 and 2025. <\/p>\n For every person housed by the homeless services system over the past year, about 2.3 newly unhoused people sought out services, LASHA said.<\/p>\n While in office, Bass has pursued a \u201chousing first\u201d strategy focused on relocating unhoused people from tent and RV encampments into hotel rooms and other shelter settings. <\/p>\n That approach, which includes Bass\u2019 signature Inside Safe program, helped move thousands of tents and people off the street and in hotel rooms, but costs three times as much as other shelter options, according to a city analysis.<\/p>\n About 41% of the people who\u2019ve participated in the program since it began have returned to homelessness, according to LAHSA\u2019s Inside Safe data dashboard<\/a>. Bass defends the program, but has said it needs to reduce costs.<\/p>\n L.A. City and county leaders expanded the L.A. homelessness response system primarily by adding fast, short-term solutions like emergency shelter beds and temporary rental subsidies. They lagged behind, in comparison, on permanent supportive housing, service providers said. <\/p>\n The number of people permanently housed by the system declined from about 28,600 in 2024 to 25,532 last year, according to data provided by LAHSA Friday. <\/p>\n Placements into shelter and permanent supportive housing went down this year, while the number of people returning to the streets after being in shelter went up. <\/p>\n Family homelessness decreased by 14%, according to LAHSA\u2019s data, but the agency said that likely reflects a recent decline in the supply of family resources, not demand.<\/p>\n LAHSA also broke findings down by region. The Metro LA and East L.A. areas each saw their unsheltered populations rise by about 20%, the agency found. In the Antelope Valley, unsheltered homelessness dropped 37%.<\/p>\n Tents for unhoused people are seen on a Skid Row sidewalk.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Frederic J. Brown<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Follow the money\u00a0 <\/p>\n Los Angeles homelessness officials said even with increased local spending, much of the current system has relied on state and federal dollars, including one-time pandemic dollars. Dips and changes in those funding sources had consequences for this year\u2019s count, they said. <\/p>\n Bass said reductions last year to the state of California\u2019s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention grant program, known as HHAP, \u201cseverely impacted our work to keep people housed and get more Angelenos off the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n Bass did not respond to multiple interview requests by LAist seeking comment on the latest homeless count results. <\/p>\n In the 2024-25<\/a> budget year, state funding made up just under $115 million, or 13% of LAHSA’s overall budget. Then, in 2025-26<\/a>, those sources of state funding dropped 26% to about $85 million, or 9% of the agency’s budget, according to LAHSA reports.<\/p>\n But LAHSA’s overall budget held roughly flat. Decreases in state funding were largely made up for by year-over-year increases in city and federal dollars. <\/p>\n LAHSA officials said during Friday\u2019s presentation that this year\u2019s increase in homelessness reflects major cuts to a rental-subsidy program it administers known as Time Limited Subsidies, or TLS. The agency also cited drops in state revenue. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784941814_338_.jpeg\")
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