LAHSA seeks volunteers for 2025 homeless count

The upcoming three-day homeless count in the Los Angeles area needs volunteers, the LA Homeless Services Authority announced Thursday.

The 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count takes place Jan. 21-23, with online registration now available at count.lahsa.org.

The annual homeless census typically involves thousands of volunteers who fan out across LA County’s 4,000 square miles to conduct to gauge unsheltered homelessness, according to LAHSA. Traveling in small groups, volunteers record the number of unsheltered people, tents, vehicles and makeshift shelters they observe in assigned census tracts.  

“Last year’s Homeless Count marked the first decrease in street homelessness that Los Angeles has seen in years,” LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum said in a statement. “As we gear up for this year’s count, community support is crucial. We need thousands of volunteers to join us in counting our unhoused neighbors so we can better understand where they are, the services they need most and what it will take to bring them home.”

LAHSA began conducting annual homeless counts in 2016 to gather data for an analysis of people experiencing homelessness in the LA Continuum of Care, which covers most of the county. Pasadena, Glendale and Long Beach have separate health authorities.

On Tuesday, Jan. 21, count volunteers will cover the San Fernando Valley and LA Metro areas. Day two takes place in the San Gabriel Valley and East LA, and on Jan. 23 volunteers will cover the Antelope Valley, West and South LA and the South Bay and Harbor region.

The three-part count assesses unsheltered and youth homelessness, sheltered homelessness and a demographic survey. LAHSA officials said they depend on volunteers to accomplish the unsheltered count.

LAHSA is expected to collect youth count data from Jan. 22-31 and finish a housing inventory count Jan. 22.

The 2024 count found that homelessness slightly decreased in the Los Angeles after several consecutive years of increases.

Unhoused LA County residents totaled 75,312 in January, compared with 75,518 in 2023 for a downtick of 0.27%, and 45,252 unhoused individuals were counted in the city of Los Angeles, compared with 46,260 in 2023, a drop of 2.2%,

Unsheltered homelessness in LA County decreased 5.1% compared with 2023, but the shelter population increased 12.7%, and unsheltered homelessness in the city of LA dropped about 10.7%, while the city’s shelter census rose 17.7%.

LAHSA is a Los Angeles city and county joint powers agency.

Data from the annual homeless counts impacts funding local governments receive from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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