{"id":411673,"date":"2026-07-25T05:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411673\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T05:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:02:09","slug":"las-unhoused-population-spike-is-political-blow-for-mayor-bass-as-election-looms-press-telegram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411673\/","title":{"rendered":"LA\u2019s unhoused population spike is political blow for Mayor Bass as election looms \u2013 Press Telegram"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of people living on the streets or in their vehicles in the city of Los Angeles rose in the latest homeless count, ending a two-year run of declining numbers<\/a> prior to this year\u2019s count and dealing a blow to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass<\/a> as she seeks reelection.<\/p>\n

Related: Homelessness spikes in LA city, rises slightly in county, according to latest count<\/a><\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s second most populous city saw its unsheltered homeless population rise 7.9%, up to an estimated 29,115 people,\u00a0while its overall homeless population \u2013 which includes people living in shelters or other temporary housing \u2013 went up 3.4%, from about 43,699 to 45,194 people, year-over-year, according to the latest annual count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority<\/a>, released Friday, July 24.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In comparison, the number of homeless people overall in L.A. County and 85 of its cities rose by 1.2% while its unsheltered homeless population increased 3.3%.<\/p>\n

Although LAHSA officials said the 3.4% overall increase isn\u2019t statistically significant, Amanda Landrian Gonzalez, a public health researcher for USC who helped with the statistical analysis of the count data for the agency, cited that the 7.9% increase in unsheltered homelessness as meaningful.<\/p>\n

Bass, who has made reducing homelessness a central pillar of her administration, blamed the setback on the federal and state government as well as a \u201clack of adequate services\u201d by the county.<\/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

\"FILE:FILE: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)<\/p>\n

She said the Trump administration drove up the cost of gas, groceries and rent, \u201cpushing more families to the edge\u201d while also slashing critical safety net funding. The mayor also blamed year\u2019s state funding cuts to California\u2019s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) program, which she said resulted in a loss of $70 million to the city.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, the mayor said, the city has seen an 11% reduction in homelessness since 2023.<\/p>\n

Since she became mayor in December 2022<\/a>, according to Bass, the city has placed tens of thousands of people facing homelessness into interim housing, brought 6,000 people off the streets through her signature Inside Safe program, in addition to housing over 1,000 homeless veterans.<\/p>\n

When LAHSA released its homeless count numbers last year, the mayor\u2019s office touted the news that homelessness in the city had fallen 17.5% since Bass took office \u2014 the largest two-year decline since the annual count began in 2005.<\/p>\n

But the reversal in progress this year comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Bass\u2019 performance as mayor<\/a>, following criticisms of her handling of the Palisades wildfires<\/a> in January 2025.<\/p>\n

And not everyone was willing to give the mayor a pass following this year\u2019s increase.<\/p>\n

L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman<\/a>, who is running against Bass in November\u2019s mayoral election<\/a> and who chairs the council\u2019s housing and homelessness committee, said this year\u2019s homeless count results are \u201cdisappointing, but not surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CouncilwomanCouncilwoman and LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman holds a press conference in Studio City after Los Angeles\u2019 homeless count shows more people are living on the street in the city on Friday, July 24, 2026. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

\u201cLeadership at City Hall has not shown the willingness to shift toward an approach that actually moves people into permanent housing. And these results make clear that the mayor\u2019s approach is not working well enough,\u201d Raman said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results in my district tell a different story \u2013 a significant decrease in the number of people living on our streets,\u201d she added. \u201cThose results came from sustained, hands-on work, and I am confident we can bring that approach \u2013 and those results \u2013 citywide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, before jumping into the mayoral race, Raman credited Bass\u2019 Inside Safe program<\/a>, as well as expanded shelter capacity and new housing, for helping to reduce homelessness in the city.<\/p>\n

Housing and homeless advocates, meanwhile, renewed their calls on Friday for more investment in affordable housing and efforts to prevent homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of homelessness in Los Angeles is heartbreaking. These statistics reflect human beings \u2014 real people who are struggling. They are our neighbors and our coworkers, our families and our friends. Every person counted should have a safe place to call home,\u201d said Adam Murray, CEO of Inner City Law Center, a nonprofit law firm in L.A.\u2019s Skid Row, which has the city\u2019s largest homeless population.<\/p>\n

Inner City Law Center\u2019s clientele includes low-income tenants and people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n

Murray called the homeless count numbers \u201ca damning indictment of us all\u201d and said it should serve as a call to action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of people living on the streets or in their vehicles in the city of Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[387,7,8,400,643,969,1493,1011,4132,48,52,51,1071,205,47,137,50,49,100,13,4720,136],"class_list":["post-411673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-environment","tag-homeless","tag-homelessness","tag-housing","tag-karen-bass","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-local-government","tag-local-politics","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-public-health","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}