Thousands of volunteers took to the streets of Los Angeles with one common goal in mind: count the number of unhoused people in Los Angeles.
The annual Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, organized by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), started Tuesday at 8 p.m. and will run through the end of tonight.
This year marks the third time LAHSA volunteers will use a mobile app for volunteers to enter their tallies in their assigned areas. Volunteers are looking for people who might be living in vehicles, tents or other makeshift dwellings.
“[The count] is strictly a visual account,” said Chris Yee, a LAHSA spokesperson. “They are looking for people who look like they are exhibiting signs of homelessness.”
While the system is subject to human error, it provides an estimate of the city’s unhoused population.
In South Los Angeles alone, there were 12,995 unhoused people counted in 2022 — roughly 30% of the city’s total unhoused population for the year — according to LAHSA. Part of LAHSA’s goal is to find specific trends in homelessness, like the large percentage of unhoused people in South L.A., in order to better coordinate services that help address homelessness.
“By having an overall large citywide number, that is what essentially allows the city of Los Angeles and the county of Los Angeles to receive appropriate funding from the federal government so that the whole issue can be addressed,” said Jon Regardie, a journalist covering Los Angeles government, city hall and homelessness. “People within the county service providers can adopt an overall strategy to help.”
Solving the city’s homelessness crisis requires more than just recognizing that there is a problem, it also includes addressing the circumstances that lead to people becoming unhoused in the first place.
“Inflow, drivers to homelessness, skyrocketing rents, stagnant wages, that stuff hasn’t changed,” Yee said. “Inside Safe and Pathway Home for the County, programs like that, don’t change those factors.”
Yee acknowledges that the count is beneficial, but asserts that the right course of action to address homelessness isn’t being taken.
“They don’t bring rents down, they don’t make companies pay people more,” he continued. “So those drivers of homelessness still exist and could very well be, as we’re getting people housed, more people are falling in.”
As of Monday, LAHSA had received 4,800 volunteer sign-ups; roughly half of the 8,000 volunteers LAHSA said were needed to conduct the count.
“The more people who participate and who volunteer, the more accurate the count can be,” Regardie said.