The number of people living on the street \u2014 both in the city of Los Angeles and across much of Los Angeles County \u2014 is up compared to the previous year, dealing a fresh blow to Mayor Karen Bass as she runs for reelection.<\/p>\n
Homelessness went up by 3.4% across the city compared to the previous year, according to two people familiar with the numbers presented by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in closed-door briefings. <\/p>\n
L.A.\u2019s unsheltered homeless population \u2014 those living outside or in their vehicles \u2014 saw an even bigger jump, increasing by 7.9% after two consecutive years of decreases, those sources said. Both asked to remain unnamed because they were not authorized to publicly discuss LAHSA\u2019s presentation, which focused on the results of this year\u2019s annual point-in-time count<\/a> conducted in January.<\/p>\n The numbers represent a significant setback for Bass, who is seeking a second term in the Nov. 3 election and has made the fight against homelessness a central part of her agenda, touting her administration\u2019s progress in moving people indoors.<\/p>\n Bass, in a statement, attributed the increases to an array of issues, including funding cuts by the state and federal governments. She described a lack of adequate county services, such as mental health and substance counseling, as a contributor to the crisis.<\/p>\n Even with those obstacles, the city has reduced unsheltered homelessness by double digits since 2023, while also housing more than 1,000 homeless veterans, Bass said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis crisis was ignored by city leaders for decades, it\u2019s only now that we\u2019ve seen a historic decline,\u201d she said. \u201cI will never stop fighting until we end street homelessness, because no Angeleno should be sleeping on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n LAHSA has been briefing city and county officials in the run-up to the public release of the numbers on Friday. The agency did not immediately provide comment on the latest count.<\/p>\n Bass is running against City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who heads the council\u2019s committee on housing and homelessness. Over the past year, Bass has repeatedly touted a 17.5% drop in unsheltered homelessness over two years in L.A. \u2014 reductions that offered signs of hope for a region where homelessness had been steadily trending upward over a decade.<\/p>\n Inside Safe, the mayor\u2019s signature homelessness program, has moved more than 6,000 people into hotels, motels and other types of interim housing since Bass took office in December 2022. But by May 31, 41% of those people had returned to homelessness, according to LAHSA figures collected separately from this year\u2019s homeless count.<\/p>\n The increases in homelessness are \u201cbad for Los Angeles, and therefore bad for the incumbent mayor,\u201d said political science professor Fernando Guerra, who heads the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.<\/p>\n \u201cFor her political campaign, there\u2019s nothing good about this count,\u201d he said. \u201cIt contradicts her main campaign theme. It contradicts the successes of her first term. It contradicts the narrative of her reasons for running for reelection.\u201d<\/p>\n Bass was already facing an array of challenges this summer: anger over the protracted cleanup from the Lineage fire in Boyle Heights, where smells and vermin have plagued the surrounding neighborhood; multiple water main breaks, including one that caused major flooding; and questions about the overlapping roles held by a crisis communications consultant who advised her office for free. <\/p>\n The numbers from this year\u2019s homelessness count were not as grim in other parts of the region.<\/p>\n Homelessness increased by 1.2% in the \u201ccontinuum of care,\u201d which covers 85 of Los Angeles County\u2019s 88 cities, including L.A., according to people familiar with the numbers presented by LAHSA. Unsheltered homelessness in those communities increased by 3.5%, those sources said. (Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale conduct their own counts.)<\/p>\n Last year, LAHSA reported<\/a> that the number of homeless people across those cities had declined 4%, along with a 10% reduction in the number of people living in the streets.<\/p>\n L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, in her own statement, described the point-in-time count as one data point and \u201cnot the whole picture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople experiencing homelessness \u2014 and the communities impacted by this crisis \u2014 care less about esoteric debates over the numbers,\u201d she said. \u201cThey care more about what they see on our streets \u2014 whether people are getting into housing, accessing the care they need, and being accountable for how their tax dollars are being spent.\u201d<\/p>\n The backsliding comes at a difficult time not just for Bass but also for LAHSA, a joint city-county agency that has become a major target for the Trump administration, which moved last month to suspend LAHSA<\/a> from seeking or receiving funds for housing and homeless programs.<\/p>\n