The Brief

The death rate for unhoused Angelenos remained relatively flat in 2023, and experts point to increased availability of anti-overdose medication being a potential factor, according to a report released Thursday by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

The mortality rate rose just 1% in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s about 2,500 deaths of unhoused people in Los Angeles County that year, 45% of which were caused by drug overdoses.

On average, nearly seven people experiencing homelessness died each day in L.A. County in 2023.

In 2022, there were 2,374 unhoused deaths in L.A. County.

In previous years, there had been steep increases in deaths of unhoused people — a 56% increase between 2019 and 2021 — driven largely by a rapid rise in fentanyl overdoses. Since then, there have been efforts to make naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of opioid overdose, more widely available in libraries, jails and other spaces.

This year’s report credits expanded distribution of naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, as likely helping prevent further dramatic increases. But drug-related deaths are still a major concern.

“Despite the continued plateau in drug-related overdoses among people experiencing homelessness, we are still facing the worst overdose crisis in history,” said Dr. Gary Tsai, director of county Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control, at a Thursday morning news conference.

Drug overdoses remain the leading cause of death for the region's unhoused population, and the drug overdose mortality rate among homeless Angelenos is nearly three times higher than it was in 2019.
Fentanyl was involved in 70% of drug-related fatalities in 2023, the report states, compared with 68% the previous year.

Coronary heart disease was the second leading cause of death, increasing significantly in 2023. Transportation-related injuries remained the third leading cause, with an unhoused pedestrian or cyclist dying about every other day.

The deadliest locations for unhoused Angelenos included downtown/Skid Row and Westlake/MacArthur Park, according to geographic analysis.

Reaction from county leaders

County government leaders appeared to be encouraged by some the findings in the report. Some said a plateau in the mortality rate is evidence that investments in housing and treatment for unhoused people were working.

Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement that she is well aware of the need for safe housing, mental health services and substance-use programs. Her district includes Skid Row and MacArthur Park.

“While it’s encouraging to see the overdose deaths and other major causes of death start to level off, we can’t stop here,” Solis said.

Supervisor Janice Hahn seems to agree.

"Getting people out of encampments and into shelters saves lives, and we should double down on harm reduction and preventing overdoses,” she said.

The Public Health Department offered more than a dozen recommendations for reducing homeless mortality in L.A. County, including expanding housing options for people who use drugs, increasing harm reduction services, improving access to cardiac care and collaborating with cities to curb traffic deaths.

By the numbers

Between 2013 and 2023, L.A. County’s homeless population nearly doubled to more than 75,000 people. In that time, the number of deaths of unhoused people increased every year, as did the overall mortality rate for the unhoused population.

That means as L.A. County’s unhoused population has grown, it also became even deadlier to experience homelessness in the region.

Overall, unhoused residents died at 4.5 times the rate of the general population in 2023. Their rate of drug overdose mortality was 49 times higher, and their rate of transportation-related death was 20 times higher.

Causes of Death

The top five causes of death have consistently been drug overdose, coronary heart disease, transportation-related injury, homicide and suicide, except in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, those five causes made up 75% of all deaths among people experiencing homelessness in the region, according to L.A. County’s Department of Public Health.

1. Drug overdose

Drug and alcohol overdoses have been the leading cause of death since 2017, according to county data. The overdose mortality rate spiked dramatically between 2019 and 2022, before leveling off in 2023. Methamphetamine overdoses were the biggest cause of overdose death, followed by fentanyl.

“I think it's so important that we don't allow this data to let us become complacent,” said Trevor Lee, medical director of the harm reduction division at L.A. County’s Department of Health Services. “We are still in the midst of the worst overdose crisis in history, which is disproportionately affecting people experiencing homelessness.”

Health officials say increased distribution of naloxone, as well as other harm reduction, overdose prevention and substance use treatment services helped reduce the number of overdose deaths related to fentanyl and other opioids. In 2020, L.A. County service providers handed out 48,000 doses of naloxone. Last year, it was nearly 480,000 doses.

Still, the risk of fentanyl overdoses remains high among unhoused Angelenos who use drugs. The percentage of overdose deaths involving fentanyl increased to 70% in 2023, from 13% in 2018. That was similar to the previous year.

“It's so important that we interpret these results by identifying what's working and then doubling down on those efforts so that we can actually begin to see a decrease in deaths, because the plateau is not not good enough,” Lee said.

Methamphetamine was involved in 79% of overdose deaths. Most overdose deaths involve more than one drug, and more than half involved both fentanyl and methamphetamine in 2023, according to county officials. Cocaine was involved in 15% of overdose deaths, and heroin in 5%.

2. Coronary heart disease 

The second leading cause of death among L.A.’s unhoused population continues to be coronary heart disease, which accounted for 14% of deaths in 2023. The rate for this cause of death rose 22% between 2022 and 2023 — the largest increase recorded by L.A. County health officials since 2016.

The rate was nearly six times greater among unhoused L.A. County residents than in L.A. County generally.

Previous reports have pointed out that unhoused people in L.A. die from coronary heart disease at much younger ages than people who are housed. In 2022, the average age at death from coronary heart disease among the unhoused was 64, compared to 78 for all L.A. County residents.

3. Transportation-related deaths

In 2023, an unhoused pedestrian or cyclist was killed by a moving vehicle approximately every other day in L.A. County. But homeless Angelenos were 20 times more likely to die from transportation-related injuries than L.A. County residents overall.

People experiencing homelessness are more vulnerable to traffic deaths because they're more likely to live near roadways, according to the report. Transportation-related injury remained the third leading cause of death among all unhoused L.A. County residents and the second leading cause among unhoused women.

Traffic-related injuries caused 8% of all unhoused deaths in L.A. County in 2023, and the mortality rate associated with these deaths increased 50% compared with 2019.

County health officials recorded 347 traffic-related unhoused fatalities in 2022 and 2023. They found that the deaths were not concentrated in any specific location but spread out across L.A. County.

In 2023, 14% of all fatal traffic accidents reported to police involved unhoused victims, according to LAPD data.

4. Homicide

Homicide was the fourth leading cause of death among unhoused people in L.A. County in 2023. That year, 120 unhoused people were killed at the hands of another, a 25% decrease in the homicide mortality rate from a year earlier.

Unhoused Angelenos were 16 times more likely to die by homicide than the general population.

5. Suicide

The suicide rate among L.A.’s homeless population has remained relatively stable over time. Unhoused residents are eight times more likely to die by suicide than Angelenos in general.

Suicide rates have been consistently higher among younger people experiencing homelessness and among white and Latino people experiencing homelessness.

Recommendations

The L.A. County Department of Public Health had several recommendations to slow the mortality rate among unhoused people in the region.

They include:

• Ensure rapid access to housing and shelter.
• Expand harm reduction and overdose prevention outreach for residents at highest risk for overdose.
• Ensure that physical health, mental health and substance use treatment services are available and responsive to the needs of unhoused Angelenos.
• Work with municipalities and unincorporated communities to reduce traffic deaths among L.A. County residents experiencing homelessness.

Read the full report here.

A federal judge said she’ll need more time to decide whether to grant a temporary court order to give immigrants detained at Adelanto ICE Processing Center immediate relief.

Immigrants rights groups and a private firm filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security in January. They allege that the approximately 2,000 people currently held at the Adelanto complex are subject to inhumane treatment.

On top of squalid conditions, plaintiffs say detainees are fed cold, unsanitary food and expected to drink dirty water. They also allege detainees must often wait several months to see a doctor, if they ever do.

“The conditions in which these non-citizens are being held in the Adelanto detention facility, as alleged in the petition, are certainly concerning,” said Judge Sunshine Sykes at a hearing Tuesday for the Central District of California. “I think that each of us would never want to be in that position.”

Still, Sykes said she was tentatively inclined to “deny the motion [for a preliminary injunction] without prejudice or to allow plaintiffs to withdraw the motion and refile it,” which would give the immigrants rights groups a chance to address her concerns. She then gave the attorneys the opportunity to respond and, potentially, convince her otherwise.

What’s happening at Adelanto?

Adelanto is about 90 miles away from downtown Los Angeles. According to the lawsuit, the detention center does not accommodate detainees with special needs. Detainees with mobility issues, for instance, are assigned top bunks. And in a sworn declaration, one detainee described being put in handcuffs and ankle chains when she is taken to court appointments, even though she uses a cane.

Plaintiffs also say solitary confinement is used to retaliate against detainees who speak out against these conditions and to isolate those who are experiencing mental health crises. An LAist analysis of the most recent ICE data found that as of January, Adelanto is among the top 10 facilities that put immigrant detainees in solitary confinement across the country.

The detention center is run by The GEO Group Inc., one of the largest private prison operators in the United States.

The federal government has declined LAist's request for interviews and comments, and The GEO Group has not responded to those requests.

The arguments for and against an injunction

In the hearing, Judge Sykes raised concerns that The GEO Group and the Adelanto warden are not named in the lawsuit. She also questioned how the court could enforce an order for immediate relief and wondered if there might be a more “efficient” way for the plaintiffs to proceed.

The federal government has asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit altogether. Pushkal Mishra, representing ICE and DHS, said “between the government and the alleged injury are the independent, discretionary, uncertain and speculative day-to-day activities of a third party.” The GEO Group and its employees, he argued, “are the proper defendants in the case, not [the] government.”

The advocates' lawsuit underscores that companies like The GEO Group are subject to inspection by the federal government. Recently, ICE gave the Adelanto ICE Processing Center a “good” rating. Since September 2025, at least four people have died in detention at Adelanto, the most recent March 25.

At the hearing, Vanessa Young Viniegra, a fellow at Public Counsel, refuted the federal government’s argument that ICE and DHS should not be named defendants in the case.

“The Supreme Court has been clear that the government has a constitutional duty to care for the people in its custody and the people that it chooses to detain,” she said, “regardless of whether it employs a private company.”

Judge Sykes interjected: “I don't think I'm saying that the government is not a proper defendant. I'm saying that The GEO Group [and] the warden of Adelanto may need to be joined or brought in as defendants as well.”

Young Viniegra noted that the motion for the emergency court order provides the government “some leeway” in terms of how it obligates Adelanto to provide adequate care for detainees.

“We're not asking the court to order, you know, a specific number of staff,” she said. “It's up to the government to comply with its constitutional obligations and exactly how it does that and its relationship with GEO is for it to decide.”

What's next?

Sykes said she’ll need more time to make a decision. In addition to the preliminary injunction, she is also navigating the federal government’s motion to dismiss the case and a motion by the plaintiffs to make this a class action lawsuit, meaning the court’s outcome would apply to all Adelanto detainees.

Learn more about Adelanto

• Is Adelanto's ICE detention facility a ‘concentration camp’? And does it matter?
• Adelanto ICE facility's use of solitary confinement is among 10 highest in US, data shows
• These Angelenos journeyed to Adelanto to protest conditions at immigrant detention centers

When it was first built nearly 100 years ago, the Jardinette Apartments building in Hollywood made international headlines for its radical design. At the time, Los Angeles had never seen anything quite like architect Richard Neutra’s iconoclastic vision of what apartment living could look like.

But by the end of the century, the Jardinette had become dilapidated, its historic significance hidden behind years of neglect.

Now, this pioneering piece of L.A. architecture is coming back to life.

Developer Cameron Hassid bought the nationally registered building in 2020 after previous owners tried but failed to restore it. With the renovation now nearing completion, the Jardinette’s original concept once again is coming into clear view.

“It was a big, heavy lift,” Hassid said, describing the project as the most complicated in his career. “There are so many apartment buildings in L.A. But none of them will have the story or any of the significance that this does.”

First steps for a now-famous architect

In the 1920s, Neutra was a young Austrian architect who had recently moved to the United States to work with Frank Lloyd Wright and fellow Austrian émigré Rudolph Schindler.

Historians cite the style he would go on to develop — with its flat roofs, expansive windows, deep overhangs and blending of the indoors and outdoors — as defining the language of mid-century California modernism.

Neutra's Palm Springs Kaufmann Desert House from 1946 and his Silver Lake VDL Research House II from 1965 became iconic homes of the period.

Richard Neutra's family lived in the VDL Research House II, located in Silver Lake and designed by Neutra with his son, Dion.

(

Michael Locke via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

)

But the Jardinette, built in 1928, was Neutra’s first major commission in L.A., coming just a few years after his arrival in the United States.

Architecture historians say Neutra’s goal was to strip down the Jardinette’s design, maximizing light and fresh air in the building’s 43 modestly sized apartments, all in keeping with the burgeoning International Style.

Long ribbon windows are the most striking feature in an otherwise unadorned facade. Windows join at corners and stretch across nearly entire walls, connecting living rooms and kitchens. Panes in the walls of interior closets bring “borrowed light” into shadowy interiors.

Neutra outfitted many of the apartments with balconies that cantilever off reinforced concrete. The balconies were ideal for outdoor plants — hence the name Jardinette, or Little Garden.

The restoration of the Jardinette Apartments is nearly complete.

(

David Wagner

/

LAist

)

Barbara Lamprecht, an architectural historian who consulted on the preservation of the Jardinette, said Neutra’s approach would have seemed utterly alien amid the 1920s development boom in L.A.

“All these other revival styles were happening: Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival,” said Lamprecht, the author of Neutra: Complete Works from the publisher Taschen. “This was not a milieu that encouraged, fostered or remotely understood the tenets of early modernism.”

Once-lauded edifice falls on hard times

The Jardinette helped secure Neutra’s fame far beyond the confines of Southern California. His work on the Jardinette was included in a landmark 1932 architecture exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

But by the 1990s, the Jardinette had all but lost its visionary purity. It was painted pink and green. The previously uniform steel windows were mismatched, using cheap materials. The walls were graffitied.

By the late 20th century, the Jardinette had fallen into disrepair.

(

Junkyardsparkle

/

Wikimedia Commons

)

“It was sad,” said Corey Miller with June Street Architecture, who worked on the renovation.

“It's just what happens when buildings get neglected,” he said. “It's important to look back on these ideas and not lose them and try to maintain them and not cover them up. Now, hopefully for another 100 years, more generations of people can experience the design the way it was originally intended.”

Working with the limits of a century-old building

The team behind the Jardinette’s renewal said the building was not easy to renovate. It was originally built without a cooling system. Its electrical system couldn’t meet modern energy needs. It didn’t have stand-up showers.

Installing those modern amenities while preserving Neutra’s original design proved challenging at times, said Anant Topiwala with June Street Architecture.

The team preserved whatever original materials they could, Topiwala said, but they needed to order custom tiles, windows and other parts in order to match historic photographs and documents.

A historic photograph shows the Jardinette in its original state.

(

Courtesy Cameron Hassid

)

“We were like archeologists, in a way,” he said. “There was a lot of peeling back. What do we think the paint color was? What do we think that wood detail was?

“Neutra didn't like angles. We needed to make sure, for example, the casing around the doors didn't meet at a mitered corner. There's just so many interesting things.”

Pulling permits for a protected landmark

The Jardinette has multiple historic designations. It’s in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. And it’s protected as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Those classifications limit what kinds of changes are allowed in a renovation. Getting all the necessary permits was a job in itself, one handled by Michael Norberg with Cali Planners.

“Everything you can think of that could come up did come up on this building,” Norberg said. “But I think the bones have been reinforced. The historic aspect has been retained. The entire nature and history and spirit of this building is still here.

“And I love the fact that the city was willing to work with us on maintaining that,” he said.

How the past informs future plans

Hassid said the renovation should be completed by this summer. He added that he’s not yet sure what the building’s future will be, but he won’t sell it to a typical real estate investor. He recently put it on the market with Neema Ahadian of Marcus & Millichap.

“We've sold some really beautiful buildings, but nothing that has the history that you can find here,” Ahadian said. The buyer will need to be someone who understands the value of preserving a piece of architectural history, he said.

“This building's been through a few ownerships that have not necessarily had the same vision,” Ahadian said.

Two windows join at a right angle and a door opens to a balcony in one corner of a Jardinette apartment.

(

David Wagner

/

LAist

)

When he first took on the project, Hassid said, colleagues told him he was nuts. But he said ultimately the effort was worth it to preserve an L.A. architectural gem.

“I hope we made Richard Neutra proud, bringing his building back to life,” he said.

What does real luxury look like? 

Neutra built the Jardinette at a time when movie studios were growing. The Paramount studio lot is just a few blocks away.

Barbara Lamprecht, an architectural historian with expertise in Neutra's work, consulted on the preservation of the Jardinette.

(

David Wagner

/

LAist

)

Lamprecht, the Neutra historian, said she’s looking forward to seeing how people occupy the apartments. She said Neutra designed the Jardinette to bring a new kind of luxury to occupants who might have included up-and-coming actors or below-the-line production workers.

“The luxuries in life are access to sunlight, to views,” Lamprecht said. “This was the raison d'être for this entire building: to provide graceful, expansive lives to people who weren’t in single-family dwellings in the Hollywood Hills.”

Whoever the next tenants will be, Lamprecht said, “I feel like, for the first time, this building is not invisible any longer.”

Pasadena Unified will hear from the public Tuesday night as it considers plans to close and consolidate several schools within the district.

The campus closures are in response to declining enrollment that has left PUSD with a budget deficit that recent layoffs have not solved.

What’s happening

Parents and community members will hear from the School Consolidation Advisory Committee (SCAC) about its recommendations for which schools should be closed or consolidated.

It is the second of two town halls offered by the district. The first one was virtual.

There will be a public comment portion for attendees to give their input on the recommendations presented.

Which schools are in danger?

The advisory committee recommended a handful of schools be closed.

For TK through 8th grade, the recommended closures include Don Benito Fundamental School, Webster Elementary and Norma Coombs Elementary. The schools McKinley and Eliot Arts Magnet would merge, with the McKinley campus closing.

For high schools, the committee recommended consolidating Thurgood Marshall and Blair High School.

“But those are also six through 12 campuses, so the proposals being considered would split up those schools to nine through 12 and six through eight,” said David Wilson, a reporter for the Pasadena Star-News who spoke to Larry Mantle on LAist's daily news program AirTalk.

What’s next?

The advisory committee will present its recommendations to the Board of Education on May 28.

The board will then vote in June.

"PUSD remains committed to an unbiased process, guided at every step by Total School Solutions (TSS), the District’s independent consultant," a PUSD spokesperson said in a statement. "We remain committed to transparency and care for our community throughout this process."

How to attend the town hall

The district is hosting the in-person town hall from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Pasadena High School, 2925 E. Sierra Madre Blvd.

Monday's arraignment of 31-year old Cole Tomas Allen, a California man who is charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump over the weekend, opened legal proceedings that many extremism experts will be watching closely.

Allen, a high school tutor with a background in mechanical engineering and computer science, allegedly attempted to storm the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner on Saturday night, where Trump and other high-level administration officials were gathered with the Washington press corps. He was stopped by federal law enforcement officers before getting close to his presumed targets.

According to a White House official, Allen's sister told the Secret Service and local law enforcement that her brother was known to make "radical" statements. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and NPR has not confirmed this with Allen's family members. But this characterization has puzzled some experts who track extremism, who say that it does not align with writings and social media activity that are believed to link to the defendant.

"You look at the social media profiles that have been attributed to this suspect and they're really not that radical," said Jared Holt, senior researcher at Open Measures, a company that tracks online threats and narratives. "Oftentimes it's like quite centrist, pretty moderate left wing, if anything."

An affidavit filed by an FBI agent in support of the charges claims that Allen sent an email to members of his family moments before initiating the attack. The email specifies some grievances against Trump administration officials and policies.

"I'm not the person raped in a detention camp. I'm not the fisherman executed without trial. I'm not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration," the letter states. The letter appears to reference a range of issues from immigration detentions under the Trump administration, U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, the bombing of a girls' school in Iran and the Epstein scandal.

In an apparent reference to Trump, the letter also says "I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes."

But Holt and others say these views, however pointed some of the terminology may be, fall within a modern mainstream left. He and others say it is very unclear what may have tipped the individual from such widely held views into an alleged violent plot.

"That's part of what's troubling, is when you start to have people who are kind of seemingly normal, law-abiding members of society feeling like violence is the solution," said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, founding director and chief vision officer at the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, or PERIL, at American University.

"I think there's a little bit of nihilism reflected here," Miller-Idriss said. "This idea that there is no more solution, violence is the answer, nothing else is going to change, nothing else is going to be effective."

The alleged assassination attempt is the latest high-profile data point in a growing environment of political violence in the U.S. over the last decade. While most of that is attributed to the far right, there is alarm about rising violence from the left. Even amidst this backdrop, however, Holt and Miller-Idriss both note that the weekend incident at the Washington Hilton hotel stands out.

For starters, Holt said he's seen no indication that the defendant was steeped in conspiratorial thinking. He said that more typically, people behind acts of violent extremism are nursing grievances fed by false narratives.

"If you were to just kind of randomly bump into one of these people on the street, you might get the sense that something was a little off," Holt said. "Whereas this seems -- just looking at, you know, this BlueSky profile that's been attributed to the suspect and this document that's been attributed to the suspect – I'm not getting that same kind of read."

In addition, Miller-Idriss said the defendant's presumed writings suggest that he felt personally responsible for not having taken action sooner against the administration. She said they do not appear intended to incite others to take similar action, or to spread a particular ideological message. The tone is one of "defeatism," Miller-Idriss said, which contrasts with a more typical pattern of political violence, particularly from the far right.

"I don't think you usually see the defeatism on the far right, [which is] more of a mobilization of martyrdom, of wanting attention, of wanting to launch a movement, to be a firestarter, that kind of thing," she said. "This is like a much more hopeless kind of language and rhetoric being used."

Holt said this tone is troubling, not simply because of how it may connect to the violence that Allen is alleged to have been planning. But also because it may signal that on the left, there may be a growing perception that the levers of democracy can no longer work to effect change.

"That is a bleak point for an individual to get to," Holt said. "But I also think that people are getting to that point now should be cause for reflection for people who work in politics or who work in advocacy, or whatever it may be, that [with] the many problems that we're up against today, there is a subset of the American population that's losing hope and is having a hard time imagining a way out of it."
Copyright 2026 NPR