The number of homeless people in Los Angeles County and 85 of its cities rose by 1.2% compared to last year, to an estimated 73,040 people, and is up 3.4% in the city of Los Angeles, to an estimated 45,194 people, according to results of the 2026 homeless count released on Friday, July 24.
Unsheltered homelessness — people living in encampments or in vehicles — climbed by 3.3% in the county, and by 7.9% in L.A. city, the report revealed.
Thousands of volunteers participated when the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority conducted the mammoth annual count over a three-day period in January.
The measured area — called the Continuum of Care — is a geographic zone that includes most of L.A. County and its cities, with the exception of Pasadena, Glendale and Long Beach, which do their own counts.
Thousands of volunteers participated when the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority conducted the count over a three-day period in late January.
Organizers called the jump in unsheltered homeless in the city of L.A. a significant increase. The statistics are a contrast to reductions found in the previous two years.
Just in the city of L.A., unsheltered homeless numbers fell by 7.9%in last year’s count. Over the previous two years that category was down by 17.5%.
Most of the reasons for the stalemate in progress were the drop of homeless people moving into shelters and a roadblock from funding cuts and lack of affordable housing stock into getting into permanent housing, officials said.
“Our community needs to keep people off the edge of homelessness and staying in their homes,” said Gita O’Neill, interim chief executive officer of LAHSA.
“Studies show that 59% of people in the first year of homelessness report economics as their reason. Data say critical changes to housing resources is a critical driver,” she said.
Stephanie Graves, vice chair of the LAHSA Commission commented on the overall county numbers.
“Statically the numbers are flat. While flat is not a failure, but it is not so well,” she said.
Paul Rubenstein, LAHSA chief of staff, emphasized that the homeless count is not a useful measure of neighborhood-level homelessness, but rather it is designed to provide a snapshot of homelessness across the region.
He explained that time limited subsidies is a low-barrier, short-term rental subsidy that helps people experiencing homelessness secure housing. Losses of funding for TLS forced a reduction in available slots.
“As a result of these shifts, the system caused new TLS move-in starting in April 2025,” Rubenstein said. “The number of new TLS movements in 2025 dropped to below 2022. That drop contributed to more than 5,000 fewer pople receiving permanent housing.”
Rubenstein noted the increase in the unsheltered homelessness count was driven by the rise of more people living in recreational vehicles on the streets.
“While the pause on new TLS enrollments is a major contributor to this year’s results, we know that economic factors are consistently a leading cause of homelessness,” Rubenstein added.
The 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, overseen by LAHSA, was completed over three nights, from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22 across nearly all of L.A. County, excluding Long Beach, Glendale and Pasadena, which conduct their own counts. Required by the federal government, the point-in-time count helps determine how hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal funding are allocated for shelters, housing and services.
- Also see: LA County leaving joint city-county homeless agency: “We don’t need LAHSA,” says Supervisor Horvath
About 5,000 volunteers signed up to perform the point-in-time count, observing the unhoused on streets, in parks, beneath freeway overpasses, living in cars, RVs, tents and makeshift shelters. The data was entered into apps that was used by volunteers to aggregate their count totals. Demographic analysis such as age, ethnicity of those counted, was performed by USC. USC statistical experts also combine the unsheltered count numbers with the sheltered count numbers and the youth count to calculate the total homeless count.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increase in her city on a cut in the state Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funding. After Bass and other elected officials lobbied Sacramento, the cut was reduced to only $100 million, as HHAP funding went from $500 million to $900 million.
She also said a contributing factor to people cycling back into homeless was “a lack of adequate services provided by Los Angeles County.”
Bass blamed the Trump Administration for driving up the cost of rent, groceries and gasoline, and cutting critical safety nets, pushing people into homelessness.
Despite state and federal cutbacks, she said homelessness in the city of Los Angeles dropped 11% since 2023. She attributed that to the placement of thousands of Angelenos into interim housing, and that includes 6,000 moved off the street by the Inside Safe program.
She questioned whether continuing to run the city’s homeless programs through LAHSA is sustainable, since multiple audits of the joint city-county agency found the money wasn’t tracked and providers went unpaid. She said the city must “build something better” but Los Angeles has not yet done so.
This year’s count came as Los Angeles County formally launched a new homelessness department — a shift that moves major funding, staff and contracting authority away from LAHSA. The creation of the county’s Homeless Services and Housing Department (HSH), led by Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, marks a turning point in how the region coordinates its response.
HSH will also manage new dollars from a Nov. 2024 county one-half cent sales tax, Measure A, which will produce about $1 billion every year, giving the county more control of tax dollars.
Horvath said the county took over all service contracts once managed by LAHSA beginning July 1, saying the county no longer needs LAHSA. It has even brought over dozens of LAHSA employees to HSH that were being laid off.
Many political watchers consider the count numbers with a grain of salt — a snapshot of a few nights during the winter from a survey conducted mostly by volunteers.
“I have never been a big fan of the point-in-time count in years past and it remains true this year. It is one measurement, one snapshot of the LA region,” Horvath said on Thursday.
Los Angeles County is one of the last to receive results from its homeless count. They were delayed from an expected release in spring or early summer.
• In May, Orange County released its homeless count numbers. They showed a 14% drop in homelessness over the past two years. For the first time, the number of people staying in shelters exceeded those living on the streets.
In the 2026 report, homelessness fell throughout the county, with the largest drop coming from south county cities, at 21%, followed by central county at 15.5%, and north county at 7.5%.
• Earlier this month, Long Beach reported a 3.7% increase in its homeless population this year compared to 2025.
• Pasadena saw a decrease of just four people compared to the previous year, a 1% decrease. However, the 577 people counted on the night of Jan. 21 was more than in any year going back to 2018.
• On March 20, Ventura County reported its annual point-in-time homeless count identified 1,755 individuals experiencing homelessness. The survey marked an 11.8% decrease from 2025 and a 28.1% decrease from the all-time high in 2023, the Ventura County Star reported.
• Homelessness in Alameda County fell by 13% since 2024, according to the results of its latest point-in-time survey reported by The Mercury News in May.
City News Service contributed to this report