The 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, a point-in-time snapshot of homelessness in Los Angeles County that helps determine the distribution of funding and services to the unhoused, got underway this week.
This year’s count could bear extra significance, given the priority that new Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has placed on addressing the crisis since taking office in November. She declared a state of emergency over homelessness as her first official act and has stressed collaboration with the county and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), a joint powers authority coordinated by both the city and county.
The County Board of Supervisors quickly followed Bass’ announcement with its own state of emergency declaration, as did the neighboring city of Long Beach.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s count will be conducted with the help of thousands of volunteers, with the results expected by late spring or early summer. The count began in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys on Tuesday, followed by counts in West and East Los Angeles on Wednesday. Thursday’s count took place in South Los Angeles, the Metro area and the Antelope Valley.
Wendy Greuel, chair of LAHSA’s commission, said at a briefing on Monday, volunteers are still needed to help count. People can register at theycountwillyou.org.
“We want to make sure that we have the most accurate count,” Greuel said. “Oftentimes, our funding is determined upon the count, where we know exactly what kind of services are needed, in what geographic area. So it’s a really important number. We never really know what is going to happen.”
The 2022 homeless count by LAHSA revealed 41,980 unhoused people in the city of Los Angeles, up 1.7% from 2020. In the county, there were 69,144 unhoused people, an increase of 4.1%.
Last year’s count was followed by criticism from some officials, including members of the City Council, who pointed to issues with accessing data related to the count and inconsistencies in communication between the agency and council districts. Some council members called for a third party count of Los Angeles’ unhoused population and a multi-year audit of authority’s previous counts.
