A clearer picture of the status of homelessness in Los Angeles County came into focus Thursday with the release of the 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, and after some brief hope offered by last year’s results, the downward trend is continuing.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority revealed “a 9% rise in homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles County to an estimated 75,518 people and a 10% rise in the City of Los Angeles to an estimated 46,260 people.”
“While this year’s increases are slightly lower than previous year-over-year increases in the homeless count, they continue a steady growth trend of people experiencing homelessness in the annual Point-in-Time Count,” the release said.
In 2019, the annual report detected double-digit increases in the homeless populations of the city and county.
The 2020 count continued that upward trajectory, though the 2022 count found that the increases had drastically slowed, nearly leveling off to about 69,000 people experiencing homelessness in the county and almost 42,000 in the city.
That positive momentum was called a “glimmer of hope” by Tommy Newman, vice president at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, when he spoke to Courthouse News Service.
On Thursday, however, that glimmer disappeared, replaced by a return to a frustrating reality for many in Southern California.
“The homeless count results tell us what we already know — that we have a crisis on our streets, and it’s getting worse,” said Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of LAHSA. “The important thing to take away from today is that for the first time, the city, county, and LAHSA are moving with urgency to house the people living on our streets.”
Local leaders reacted to the news with dismay and promises that more will be done to stem the tide of homelessness.
“These results are disappointing,” Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Janice Hahn said in a statment. “It is frustrating to have more people fall into homelessness even as we are investing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and resources into efforts to bring people inside. … I hold out hope that the new partnership between the County and City of Los Angeles will make a difference and help us more effectively address this crisis. 2023 needs to be a watershed year for us where we turn these trends around.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass noted in a statement that “the challenge before us is vast, but we will continue to work with urgency to bring Angelenos inside.”
“We must sustain our momentum by locking arms with leaders at every level of government as we confront this crisis as the emergency that it is. Lives depend on it,” she said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath also released a statement promising more action as “more Angelenos continue falling into homelessness than we are able to house.
“Over the last six months, we have proven that our unified approach is connecting more people to housing and services,” she said. “Now we must address the root causes of homelessness by investing in families; working to make housing more affordable; and, most importantly, keep people in the places they already call home.”