The number of homeless people across LA County fell 4% in 2025, marking the second consecutive decline after a long-standing steady increase with a 10% decline in people living on the streets, according to the annual count released Monday.
The February snapshot-based decline follows billions of taxpayer funds spent on solving homelessness in the county, and has increased scrutiny about how the money is being spent.
Officials from the Los Angeles Department of Homeless Services, which conducts the count, said investments are working, particularly by reducing the population of unsheltered homeless individuals.
Over the past two years, cities and counties have been increasingly focused on clearing camps and providing shelter beds or rooms for hotels and motels.
“Reducing homelessness is a trend right now in LA City and the county,” said Paul Rubenstein, Associate Chief External Affairs Director at Lahasa. “Our leaders come together and take people inside and their efforts are rewarded.”
The 2025 figure represents the first figure since its inception in 2005, indicating that the number of homeless people has been showing a decline in overall homelessness for the second year in a row.
“Homelessness has declined for the second year in a row because we chose to act with urgency and reject the broken status quo, leaving people on the streets until homes are built,” she said. “These are not just data points, they represent the thousands of people inside and the areas that are beginning to heal.”
How strong a trend is depends on how you view it. Last year, overall homelessness decreased slightly in both cities and counties, but the drip was too small to be statistically significant.
However, the unsheltered homelessness has significantly declined in 2024.
This year, drops in both categories were out of the margin of error.
Overall, there was an estimated 72,308 people living on shelters and the county’s streets in February, but there was a 4% reduction since 2024. In LA, homelessness fell 3.4% to 43,699.
The unsheltered population saw a greater decline.
In February there was an estimated 47,413 people living on the streets of the county and 26,972 people living in the city.
Over the past two years, the county’s unsheltered population has declined by 14% and the city has declined by 17.5%.
Rubenstein said these numbers have largely decreased due to the camp’s resolution efforts.
These include the mayor of the Safe Safe Initiative and County Route Home.
Los Angeles City Councilman Nitia Raman, who chairs the Housing and Homelessness Committee, said he is “prideful” to see a significant decline in unsheld homelessness in the city.
“[When you’re unsheltered]you are a victim of assault, crime, and sexual assault. Women are very unsafe,” she said. I find that challenging for the city. ”
As more people moved to shelter beds, hotels and motels in what appears to be temporary, the number of people who are evacuated but have no permanent homes has increased.
In 2025, the sheltered homeless population rose 8.5% in the county and 4.7% in the city.
Historically, around 25% of the homeless population have been displaced, but that number has risen to around 38% within the city and 34% within the county.
Lahsa, who has the local homeless service system overseas, said she is making progress in leading people to permanent housing.
Last year, agent data showed 11,146 people moved from temporary homes to permanent homes.
The annual homelessness count took place from February 18th to February 20th.
Volunteers spread throughout the county, counting the number of people they saw, the number of people sleeping outside. They also tallied the number of tents, makeshift shelters and vehicles that people are likely to live in.
USC researchers use individual demographic surveys to estimate on average how many people live in each of those residences.
At least in some locations, the numbers released Monday aren’t just evidence that homelessness has declined.
Earlier this month, RAND researchers published findings from a more intensive survey that found unsheltered homelessness declined in Hollywood and Venice last year, but rose to the skid row, contributing to a 15% drop when the three neighborhoods were combined.
The two reports are at a critical time for Los Angeles’ homeless service delivery system.
Two audits last year showed that Lahsa lacked adequate oversight of her contracts and programs, making her vulnerable to waste and fraud.
Following these reports, the County Board of Supervisors moved hundreds of millions of dollars in county dollars from Lahasa in April, voting for a new agency that will be launching next year.
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the overall decline in homelessness in the county is “progress,” but the decline is not fast enough.
“That’s why Los Angeles County is launching a new, dedicated division, a department that has been coordinated, accountable and designed to meet the urgency of this moment,” she said. “It streamlines services, breaks through the bureaucracy, and delivers results across 88 cities and non-incorporated communities.”
In a presentation to reporters last week, Lahsa said she has been working to improve efficiency over the past two years and has worked to increase coordination with local officials.
But Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Blumenfield said he adopted “data to publish salt grains” and was given budget issues at all levels of the government.
Certainly, moving people out of the streets can quickly become difficult.
The Trump administration wants to cut funds for federal rental grants known as Section 8. Meanwhile, the state and county are cutting funding for homeless services amid budget constraints, including some of the funds Lahsa used to move people from shelters to apartments.
Reubenstein said the cuts, in particular, mean that it is difficult to “maintain this pace” of moving people to permanent housing, and that means why it’s so important to “commit to creating new permanent housing” locally through entities like the new LA County Percentage Affordable Housing Solutions Agency.
Times reporter Doug Smith contributed to this report.
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