Officials on Thursday projected as much as a 10% reduction in unsheltered homelessness after reviewing data collected during this year’s Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority expects a 5%-10% decrease in the number of people living on streets, in parks, vehicles or other outdoor locations, marking a reduction in homelessness for the second year in a row.
“When I first came to LAHSA, I publicly stated that we wanted to reduce unsheltered homelessness within three years. We’ve done it in two,” LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum said in a statement. “The turning point came when the City and County aligned by declaring states of emergency on homelessness and proceeded to collaborate through LAHSA to address the crisis. We commend them for that.”
Last year unsheltered homelessness decreased 10.7% in the city of Los Angeles and 5.1% in LA County, according to LAHSA.
The finalized results of the 2025 count are expected to be released in late spring or early summer, officials said. Preliminary numbers do not include an “annual multiplier” developed by LAHSA’s partners at USC that plays a key role in developing the annual count estimate. Compared with 2024, the 2025 raw data showed about 3,600 fewer counts of unsheltered homelessness.
Recent data shows that the LA area continues to buck the national trend on homelessness, LAHSA officials observed. The agency’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report revealed an 18% increase across the nation, compared with Los Angeles’ decrease.
The data reflects a decline in unsheltered homelessness within the LA Continuum of Care, which is every city and unincorporated area the county except for Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach. Those cities each have departments that do homeless counts annually.
In January, LAHSA released data for fiscal year 2023-24 showed that within 12 months, the rehousing system performed more efficiently — 45% more people transitioned from living outdoors to into permanent housing, 32% more people moved from homelessness into interim housing and an additional 29% moved from interim into permanent housing.
LAHSA officials credited the positive results to
- encampment resolution efforts such as LA Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe initiative and the county’s Pathway Home;
- strike teams that aim to prevent bottlenecks in the rehousing system;
- batch matching, which identifies multiple people for every supportive housing unit through one application; and
- master leasing, a program that allows the agency to lease entire apartment buildings and house people faster.
“It’s important for decision-makers to focus on change while continuing the momentum LAHSA, the re-housing system, the city and county have produced over the last two years,” Adams Kellum said. “LA has been waiting years for this moment. Let’s trust what we have built and the real progress we are making.”
More information on LA-area homelessness is available at lasha.org.
