While homelessness reached unwanted levels across the United States this year, Los Angeles is one of only a handful of metropolitan areas to record a decrease in people living on the streets.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its 2024 homelessness figures, which showed an 18.1% increase across the country.
Those figures come on the back of another significant rise in homelessness in 2023, spurred by rising rent costs and the end of pandemic-era assistance. This year’s increase was blamed on both affordability, as well as a surge in migrants in some states and natural disasters that battered others.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, the number of unsheltered homeless actually declined by about 5.1% from 2023, the first decrease the area has reported in seven years, HUD officials said.
In L.A. city, the number of unsheltered homeless dropped by more than 10%. Both the County and L.A. proper reported significant increases in the number of unhoused individuals coming indoors to utilize shelter space — although not all shelters are being used to their full potential.
HUD officials credited Los Angeles for increasing the availability of housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness through the use of city, county and federal funds.
Experts have also pointed toward the enforcement of camping bans and concerted efforts to clear encampments from sidewalks and get those living on the streets into some type of transitional housing as major tools in the battle against homelessness.
“What’s happening in L.A. is working,” said Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum. “The collaboration between LAHSA, the City, the County, and the service providers works and LAHSA’s changes to the rehousing system are working. We are making progress.”
Adams Kellum said several LAHSA initiatives are getting more people into supportive housing faster than ever before.
Despite the notable decrease in the number of homeless in the greater Los Angeles area, California as a whole still leads the nation in the total number of unhoused people, edging out New York, Washington and Florida.
In a statement released Friday, California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego) criticized the state’s response to the homelessness crisis, particularly Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attempts to address the issue.
“Today’s HUD report makes it clear that instead of solving the problem, Newsom’s endless spending ‘solution’ has only made it worse,” Jones said. “California now leads the nation with the largest homeless population, including the most homeless veterans.”
It’s important to note that California is the most populous state in the nation, and its warm, Mediterranean-like climate is often considered a unique factor contributing to its homelessness challenges compared to other populous states.
On the topic of veteran homelessness, the HUD did say there was room for optimism, announcing that the number of homeless veterans across the country reached an all-time low (32,882) in 2024, down 55% overall in the last 15 years. The federal agency also announced plans to award nearly $40 million in federal funds to provide rental assistance and supportive services to further combat veteran homelessness.
Outgoing HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman said the Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to ensuring families have access to affordable and safe housing, adding that data shows there is a pathway to preventing and ending homelessness, as evidenced by the progress made in getting veterans off the streets.
“While this data is nearly a year old, and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts,” Todman said. “We know what works and our success in reducing veteran homelessness … shows that.”
To read more about the HUD’s 2024 homeless figures, click here.
