The number of unhoused residents in three Los Angeles neighborhoods dropped significantly from the previous year, but those who remain may be increasingly difficult to move into housing, according to a report released today, July 1.
According to the Santa Monica-based RAND Corp., the number of unsheltered people in Hollywood, Skid Row and Venice decreased 15% in 2024 from the prior year, likely driven by increased interim and permanent housing programs.
The study found a nearly 700-person decrease in the combined unsheltered populations of Hollywood — a 49% decline — and Venice — a 22% decline. But that was offset in part by a 170-person increase in Skid Row — a 9% increase.
Researchers found that “rough sleeping” — living literally unsheltered, without a tent, makeshift shelter or vehicle — showed little change. This form of homelessness is now the most common type in the study areas, representing about 40% of the total unsheltered population.
“Our latest count found meaningful progress in reducing the number of the unhoused, as compared to the two previous years,” Louis Abramson, the study’s lead author and an adjunct researcher at RAND, said in a statement.
“But our results suggest that the remaining unhoused residents may be harder to engage and bring indoors,” according to Abramson. “New policies may be needed to extend 2024’s successes into a future that looks meaningfully different from the one that current strategies were designed to address.”
The nonprofit research organization said its project is the largest count of unhoused people in Los Angeles outside the annual point-in-time tally managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. That countywide count, largely conducted by teams of trained volunteers, is conducted during several consecutive evenings in January.
The RAND study, called the Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey — LA LEADS — Project, is conducted by the organization’s professional survey staff.
Last year’s counts of unhoused people were done every two months in the study neighborhoods. Researchers also surveyed 463 unsheltered people across the neighborhoods from July to October.
Survey participants reported staying in the same location for shorter amounts of time relative to past years. This finding is consistent with the removal of “shelter in place” orders and increases in sanitation and other encampment-resolution efforts — most common in Hollywood — that either move unsheltered people indoors or periodically displace them.
RAND researchers say that the overall decline in unsheltered homelessness has been driven mainly by a reduction in tents and makeshift structures. This leaves a more transient, mobile, and dynamic population, the study found.
The fraction of unhoused people surveyed in Hollywood and Venice who reported living with literally no shelter reached record levels.
“Because fewer unhoused people are dwelling in dense tent communities, it suggests that outreach teams will have to traverse larger areas to engage the same number of people, likely reducing their average efficiency,” said Sarah B. Hunter, coauthor of the study and director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness.
“As more people live totally exposed to the elements, their needs will rise.”
The report found that the demographics of Hollywood’s homeless population changed dramatically in 2024. There were fewer Black/African-American unsheltered residents, and respondents were more likely to report receiving benefits and/or income.
The unhoused population in Venice continued to report slightly higher education levels, greater receipt of Social Security and disability benefits, and higher income. Respondents in Venice also are more likely to be employed than those in the other neighborhoods studied.
In Skid Row, a decrease in the average age of unsheltered residents, a decline in reported time on the streets, and an increase in reporting eviction as a cause of current homeless suggests that there has been significant turnover in the unsheltered population there, according to RAND.
The study is available at www.rand.org.