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Homelessness drops slightly this year in Los Angeles area
LA County Jun 28, 2024
Los Angeles City Hall looms over a nearby homeless encampment. | Photo courtesy of Ron Reiring/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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The number of people experiencing homelessness in the Los Angeles area decreased slightly in 2024 compared with six consecutive years of increases, according to figures from the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count released Friday.
According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county joint powers agency:
- 75,312 unhoused people LA County in 2024 compared with 75,518 in 2023, a decrease of 0.27%
- 45,252 homeless individuals in the city of LA in 2024 compared with 46,260 in 2023, a 2.2% drop
- 5.1% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the county versus a 5.1% decrease last year, while the shelter count rose by 12.7%
- 10.7% decrease in unsheltered homelessness in the city, while the shelter count increased by 17.7%.
LAHSA officials said the downward trends happened because of “unprecedented policy alignment and investments” made by the local, state and federal governments, and they are “cautiously optimistic about the direction of homelessness across LA County,” according to published reports.
“For so many years, the count has shown increases in homelessness, and we have all felt that in our neighborhoods,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Friday. “But we leaned into change. And we have changed the trajectory of this crisis and have moved L.A. in a new direction.”
Bass added, “There is nothing we cannot do by taking on the status quo, putting politics aside, and rolling up our sleeves to work together. I want to thank the City Council, the County Board of Supervisors, LAHSA, our state, federal and community partners and our service provider partners for locking arms to confront this crisis with the urgency that it requires. This is not the end, it is the beginning — and we will build on this progress, together.”
LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn also released a statement Friday: “For the first time in years, the number of people sleeping on our streets is down and the number of people in our shelters is up. We have focused on shelters and we are doing a better job convincing people to come inside. The next step is building more permanent supportive housing and investing in long-term solutions to this crisis.”
The data is available to view online at lahsa.org/documents?id=8151-la-continuum-of-care-hc2024-data-summary.
