The 2026 homeless count throughout the Los Angeles area is scheduled for next week, and organizers have repeatedly put out the call for volunteers.
The annual point-in-time count on the nights of Jan. 20, 21 and 22 currently has about 3,000 registered volunteers as of this week, but the goal is to have 4,200. To sign up online, go to theycountwillyou.org.
The count starts Tuesday in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and the Metro Los Angeles area, followed by teams of volunteers in the San Gabriel Valley and East LA on Wednesday, then on Thursday in the Antelope Valley, West and South LA and South Bay/Harbor neighborhoods.
Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena do their own point-in-time counts organized by each the health departments of each city.
Assessing the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness enables local governments to meet the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s requirements for receiving federal grants.
“It takes our entire community to solve homelessness. We need our friends, families, and colleagues to join us in counting next week,” Gita O’Neill, interim CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said. “We are especially looking for additional volunteers in the San Gabriel Valley, East LA County, and the South Bay region.”
O’Neill noted the importance of the “critical insights about our unhoused neighbors” that counts provide.
“With everyone’s combined efforts, LAHSA can help direct services where they will be most effective to address homelessness in Los Angeles,” O’Neill said.
Ahead of this year’s count, officials announced several efficiency improvements.
LAHSA, which is a joint Los Angeles County and city agency, will use an app-based data collection process for the fourth consecutive year along with improved maps. Count organizers are also going to assign more staff members to offer technical support, provide assistance at deployment sites and ensure volunteers collect their materials.
LAHSA also simplified training materials to improve the volunteer experience, officials said. Training materials were updated for site coordinators and logistics specialists with the intention of ensuring consistency in the process of collecting data countywide.
The agency also is coordinating with the LA County Department of Health Services and the county’s Emergency Centralized Response Center for additional outreach staff. Officials said county staffers will aid in “special consideration” census tracts and areas, as well as in more rugged locations such as basins, creeks and deserts that are too dangerous, difficult to reach or inaccessible for volunteers from the public.
The last enhancement this year is processes for the Housing Inventory Count, which assesses the number of people living in shelter facilities, and Youth Count have been revamped to improve response rates and generate larger samples.
The Youth Count will be conducted over nine days for those aged 10 to 19, officials said. The Housing Inventory Count will start sooner to optimize data review.
