Number of homeless residents in Los Angeles County decreases in annual count

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The number of homeless residents counted in Los Angeles County has dipped slightly, decreasing by about 0.3% since last year as California continues to struggle with the long-running crisis of tens of thousands of people sleeping in cars and encampments.

Results released Friday from a federally required tally conducted in January found 75,312 people were homeless on any given night across the county, compared with 75,518 in 2023. About 45,252 were within the city of Los Angeles, where public frustration has grown as tents have proliferated on sidewalks and in parks.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a homelessness state of emergency on her first day in office in December 2022.

“This is not the end, it is the beginning and we will build on this progress, together,” Bass said in a statement.

Janice Hahn, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement that “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.”

LA County is the nation’s most populous, with about 10 million people. More than 1 in 5 of all homeless people in the U.S. live in the county, based on a 2022 federal tally.

The problem is most apparent in downtown Los Angeles, where thousands of people live in makeshift shanties that line entire blocks in the notorious neighborhood known as Skid Row. Tents regularly pop up on the pavement and parks outside City Hall, and encampments increasingly are found in suburban areas and under freeway overpasses.