The number of unhoused people in Los Angeles County has increased by 4.1% since 2020, with officials warning of a potential for 'significant increases'' in the years ahead.
The number of unhoused people in L.A. County has increased by 4.1% since 2020, with officials warning of a potential for "significant increases."The number of unhoused people in Los Angeles County has increased by 4.1% since 2020, with officials warning of a potential for "significant increases'' in the years ahead as pandemic-era safety nets end, according to the latest point-in-time tally by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
This year's count was the county's first since 2020, as last year's was canceled when LAHSA determined it was not safe to gather 8,000 volunteers amid stay-at-home orders and curfews due to COVID-19. The county received an exemption from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and was not required to conduct a 2021 count.
"Because homelessness is a lagging indicator, it is possible that future homeless counts could show significant increases,'' Dixon said. Councilman Kevin de Leon, who serves as chair of the council's Homelessness and Poverty Committee, said the results show that the city's efforts to move unhoused residents into shelter is working, but also "point to the tremendous failures in our system at all levels of government ... that have left important populations behind.''
Nearly 40% of people experiencing homelessness are also experiencing serious mental illness or substance abuse, the data showed. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger believed those numbers are actually higher, citing a UCLA study showing the figure is closer to 50%. "While it is too soon to know what this year's results will mean long term, the numbers are suggesting that there is a flattening of the curve,'' Dixon said.
Rep. Karen Bass, the frontrunner in the race for Los Angeles mayor, called the numbers "terrible'' in a news briefing and repeated her promise to declare a state of emergency on her first day in office, if elected, "so City Hall finally treats homelessness as the massive disaster that it is.''"In a city as great as L.A., there is no excuse why our leaders have failed to address our homelessness crisis,'' Caruso said in response to the count.
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