Thousands Of Volunteers To Comb The Region And Tally The Number Of Unhoused People

Thousands of volunteers will fan out across the streets of Los Angeles County Tuesday night to start counting their unsheltered neighbors — an annual tally that plays a big role in how officials divide resources.

According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the count is the largest of its kind in the country, with volunteers combing 4,000 square miles over three days.

Officials will be watching closely whether large investments to try to ease the housing crisis have been effective — last year’s count found the region’s unhoused population had spiked 14% from the prior year.

The logistics

The count starts Tuesday night at 8 p.m., with volunteers tallying unhoused people living in places like parks, alleyways, and makeshift shelters.

LAHSA will focus on the San Gabriel Valley and the San Fernando Valley first, with volunteers spreading out into Alhambra, Burbank, North Hollywood, and Van Nuys, among other areas.

On Wednesday night, LAHSA will turn its attention to West and East L.A., as well as parts of the South Bay. Volunteers will be looking for unhoused people in places that include South Robertson, Hawthorne, Bell Gardens, and Mar Vista.

The unsheltered count will wrap up on Thursday in the Antelope Valley, South L.A., and the L.A. Metro area, with volunteers tallying unhoused people in downtown, Echo Park, Hollywood, and El Sereno.

The count includes the number of youth, and an inventory of the sites that provide beds and units dedicated to serving people who are experiencing, or have experienced, homelessness.

The youth count started on Monday and will run through Jan. 31. The housing inventory count will be this Wednesday.

LAHSA won’t be venturing into Glendale, Pasadena, or Long Beach, which conduct their own separate counts.

The agency is looking for 8,000 volunteers to cover the whole county. As of Monday, about 4,800 people had signed up, which is about the same as this time last year, according to LAHSA.

While some areas like Westwood and downtown L.A. have plenty of people, others are still looking for volunteers. For example, Van Nuys needs 39 more volunteers, Hacienda Heights needs 38 more, and Studio City needs 31 more volunteers as of Tuesday afternoon.

If there aren't enough volunteers on a particular night, LAHSA will step in with a makeup count team before the end of the month. LAHSA staff will also be at every volunteer deployment site to help troubleshoot any challenges that come up, according to the agency.

Volunteers will be using the homeless point in time app from the geographic information company Esri again this year. Este Geraghty, Esri’s chief medical officer, told LAist it made last year’s count much easier.

“They had an app that people could use on their phone, and as they walked an area, they could simply click and say, I see this many people, and they are on the street, or they're in a tent, or they see a camper,” she said. “They could do all of these estimates in just a click of a button.”

Volunteers’ walking path can be tracked through the app so LAHSA gets an accurate picture of the coverage of the count, Geraghty added.

LAHSA started using Esri’s app in 2023 after some volunteers struggled with the one made by Akido Labs the year before.

What’s new this year

LAHSA is piloting a geofencing feature on the Esri app this time around. Geraghty described it as an added safeguard for the count.

“If a volunteer walks out of their assigned area, they'll get a little alert,” she said. “It just kind of makes sure that everybody stays on track, the count is as accurate as possible, so that again, ultimately, we can get services to the people who need them most.”

Ahmad Chapman, LAHSA’s director of communications, told LAist the geofencing feature was prompted by last year’s volunteers. The volunteers reported it would have been helpful to be notified if they ventured too far, so the agency worked with Esri to develop that option.

Metro will be included in LAHSA’s count this year. Last year, the transit agency conducted its own tally separately.

The agencies will partner to complete the county: LAHSA volunteers will count people on Metro’s rail and busway stations through the app Tuesday through Thursday. Metro will do its own count of all of its stations from 8 p.m. through 11 p.m. on Thursday.

Other changes this year include a new resource hub page for volunteers and an improved dashboard that will help track the numbers in real-time.

This will be the first count since L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program has been up and running for a full year. Despite the city’s efforts and unprecedented spending to try and combat homelessness, Bass has said she’s concerned more people will end up on the streets this year now that some of the city’s pandemic-era eviction protections have ended. And starting Feb 1, landlords can increase rents in rent-controlled apartments in the city for the first time in nearly four years.

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath represents the county’s third district and is chair of the LAHSA Commission. She told LAist officials heard “loudly and clearly” from cities that they want to be more involved early on in the process.

“We are partnering with them differently this year to not only make sure they get the information they need, but that we report it to the federal government in partnership with them in the right way,” Horvath said. “Because that's why we do the count, to ensure that every community gets the resources it needs based on what we see on the street.”

The purpose of the count

An annual point-in-time count of the unhoused population is required by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development during the last 10 days of January. Government agencies like LAHSA use the data to direct funding and resources to the areas that need it the most.

Horvath said not only is the count legally required, it’s essential to really understand what’s going on on our streets.

“Obviously, we need assistance on the ground,” she said. “In order for the federal government to step up and help respond to these states of emergency, we need to participate in the count and have an understanding of who's on our streets, and what the need is on our streets in order to receive those services.”

LAHSA is looking for any trends they should be paying particular attention to, Horvath added. For example, did the unhoused youth population increase, or are more older adults falling into homelessness again like last year?

LAHSA is expected to release this year’s results in late spring or early summer.

What past counts found

Last year’s count, which was conducted just six weeks after Bass took office, showed a 14% spike in the number of unsheltered people from the year before.

Over the past five years, unsheltered homelessness has risen 40% to 51,555 people countywide.

The 2023 count found that 75,518 people were unhoused in the county, including 46,260 in the city.

It also found more people are living out of their vehicles than tents or makeshift shelters. The number of vans being lived in jumped about 44% from 2022.

The count also showed that the number of sheltered people was similar to the year before.