The long-delayed release of the 2026 homeless count numbers for greater Los Angeles County is expected on Friday, but this year’s tally may be looked at differently amid overwhelming changes in services and policies from federal, county, city and nonprofit groups.
What was expected in late spring or early summer will be released later this year, after thousands of volunteers conducted the Point-In-Time Count in mid-January, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) announced in an email.
LAHSA did not provide an explanation for the delay.
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, a joint agency with the city of L.A. and the county of Los Angeles. The creation of the county’s Homeless Services and Housing Department (HSH) 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.
The transition has exposed diverging paths for the city of L.A. and the county, raising new questions about accountability, data accuracy and whether the long-standing joint system can hold together amid deepening budget pressures.
There has been talk of Los Angeles forming its own homeless services department, or joining with L.A. County’s HSH Department. Los Angeles, including LAPD, have operators working calls at the county’s Emergency Centralized Response Center (ECRC), touted by county officials as a coordinated, faster and more efficient approach to homeless responses than LAHSA.
“This is not the county’s pet project. It is something that belongs to the whole region. I believe the city of Los Angeles can work with us if they want to,” said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath on Thursday, July 23. She said by moving away from LAHSA with its own department, the residents can see where the money is and how it is spent.
LAHSA has been beset by financial irregularities, including having no agreements with community partners for repaying cash advances from the county; failing to timely reimburse nonprofits groups working in the field even when money was available; inadequate controls over contract reviews or cash payments; and inappropriate use of funds, according to results of a county audit released in November 2024.
Last year, providers of services from nonprofits testified before the Board of Supervisors about not getting paid by LAHSA. The managers of LA Family Housing, The People Concern, People Assisting the Homeless, Special Service for Groups, and Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System, all testified they had to take out lines of credit at high interest rates — or even use their own credit cards — just to stay afloat and continue to provide services.
The joint services agency denied that the audits ever proved fraud. Interim CEO Gita O’Neill said the agency has worked to rectify problems over financial reporting, internal controls, programmatic performance and contract monitoring in an interview on Jan. 20, the day before the start of the 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.
Horvath said the county has taken 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.
She says changes in the way contracts are handled and money is spent will not have an effect on tomorrow’s count.
LAHSA must still conduct the homeless count for L.A. County, excluding Pasadena, Glendale and Long Beach, which do their own counts. The large count of a county of 10 million people is a requirement of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Department. The count helps determine how hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal dollars are allocated for shelters, housing and other homeless services.
Many political watchers see the count numbers with a grain of salt — a snapshot of a few nights during the winter.
“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. She predicts numbers will stay about the same or show a slight increase.
But recent tightening of state dollars, and threats from the feds of withholding funding may impact the count, Horvath said.
In June, HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced the agency was suspending federal funding for homeless services from LAHSA. Turner said the agency had “uncovered evidence of LAHSA’s false statements and its irresponsible actions and failures,” including a lack of financial management and lack of safeguards against conflicts of interest.
The Los Angeles Continuum of Care, led by LAHSA, has received nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars over the last five years, which has been ineffective in what Turner called “a drug-fueled” homeless crisis.
LA Mayor Karen Bass told FOX 11 News last week that she is concerned about federal cuts, particularly vouchers putting homeless individuals into motel rooms, as well as changes in county services and state cutbacks, may have affected the results of the count.
“We’ve been concerned over the last year that the numbers might go up because of the cuts we have experienced and other changes,” she said. Bass later said in a statement to the media she had “grave concerns about LAHSA and zero tolerance for mismanagement and negligence” and said she directed city staff to evaluate a move of the city away from LAHSA.
LAHSA has defended itself by pointing to improvements reflected in recent counts.
There were 72,308 people experiencing homelessness countywide by the 2025 count and that included 43,699 in the city of Los Angeles. Those numbers mark a 4% decline in the county, and a 3.4% decrease in the city of L.A. as compared to 2024.
The count distinguished between people living on the street and people living in shelters — both were counted as being homeless. People on the streets dropped by 9.5% countywide, and 7.9% in L.A. city. Again, the past two years showed the percentage of unsheltered homelessness dropped by 14% across the county, and 17.5% in L.A. city.
Sarah Hunter, a senior behavioral scientist at Rand, has been working homeless counts for Rand Corp. for five years in three key sub-regions: Hollywood, Venice and Skid Row — a 54-city-block area of downtown Los Angeles. These areas are known for high concentrations of unhoused people. She didn’t think the new county homeless department, cuts to services, nor LAHSA’s financial woes would play into the results on Friday.
“The point-in-time count is very different than their (LAHSA) day-to-day operations of their homeless services,” Hunter said on Wednesday, July 22. “It is a separate issue.”
LAHSA received favorable news from Judge David O. Carter in U.S. District Court earlier this month when he issued a stay on HUD’s pending funding freeze. The matter will resume in court Aug. 6.
“This order lowers the anxieties of thousands of families, veterans, and seniors in the LA region who rely on federal funding for rental assistance,” O’Neill said in a statement.
Hunter said if cuts in services reach fruition, that may affect next year’s 2027 point-in-time count. “I don’t think cuts have yet happened, so people hadn’t lost their housing at that point (of the count),” Hunter said. “But it is hard to know.”
Nonetheless, LAHSA’s task of counting nearly the entire county is a heavy lift, Hunter said.
When Rand does their counts, they use professional counters. They also do counts several times a year, not just in the month of January. Hunter said they usually counted more homeless people in the summer, when the unhoused are on the streets and not in shelters.
She said, however, that LAHSA counters do count those in shelters, so that may prevent an undercount.
“They (LAHSA) don’t have adequate resources to do a great job. They employ volunteers and give them a half hour training, then send them on their way. Plus they do this at night,” she said.
She said Rand’s counts are done on paper, while LAHSA gives counters an app on their phone to record data. “We do everything on paper. We don’t want to risk losing data and that can happen with apps,” she said.
Rand’s counts a few years back on Third Street in Venice showed more homeless present than the LAHSA count, which showed zero. After learning about how Rand’s count differed in that region of L.A., access to the raw values and neighborhood breakdowns since then have been restricted, Hunter said.
Requests to speak with O’Neill at LAHSA about the integrity of the process and the agency in general that conducted the count, were turned down. In fact, the agency said unlike in past years, they are not doing pre-interviews nor releasing the results ahead of time for study.
Rand’s last count of the three neighborhoods in question found the combined unsheltered population was statistically unchanged between December 2024 and January 2026. But there was a 20% rise in people “rough sleeping,” without a tent or any shelter, over the previous year, the report found.
Hunter said this was due to encampment sweeps where tents and belongings are cleared away, often without placement of the unhoused in temporary or permanent housing. The data from the study found these individuals are sicker and are harder to find, without the encampment tents, etc.
“They are also harder to count. Because now you are not just counting tents,” she added.