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The latest numbers on homelessness in Los Angeles County are both encouraging and troubling.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority announced Friday that a record number of homeless people were placed into permanent housing in 2023. Officials said the county’s rehousing system placed 27,951 people into long-term housing last year, up 24% from the previous year.
Solving homelessness is a top priority for many in the region, and local taxpayers have repeatedly voted to tax themselves to raise billions of dollars to address the issue.
And one might think that all this tenant growth would reduce the number of homeless people, but in fact the number of homeless people plateaued in 2024, declining just 0.27% across Los Angeles County to a total of 75,312.
Officials say for every person who moves into permanent housing, someone loses their home and joins Los Angeles’ homeless ranks.
“There’s still a sense that homelessness is increasing faster than we can provide housing for them,” said Va Lecia Adams Kellam, CEO of the homelessness agency.
Many are experiencing homelessness for the first time.
In this year’s survey, 68% of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County said it was their first time experiencing homelessness.
Why do the numbers of people experiencing homelessness remain so high? The majority of the newly homeless say they became homeless because of financial hardship (54%), rather than health issues (17%) or leaving an institution (14%).
These survey figures mirror findings from statewide studies that point to rising housing costs as a leading cause of homelessness.
A recent statewide study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that one in five Californians lost their housing after leaving a prison, drug treatment facility, or other institution, but the vast majority became homeless because they simply could not afford the state’s high housing costs. Ninety percent of those surveyed lost their housing in California.
Eviction filings up 38%
Locally, more eviction filings were filed in Los Angeles County in 2023 than any year since 2016. As local governments eliminated the COVID-19 tenant protections that remained in the area, eviction filings increased 38% between 2022 and 2023, to a total of 47,625 for the year.
Kyle Nelson, a policy and research analyst at the Los Angeles nonprofit Strategic Action for a Fair Economy who studies eviction trends, said huge amounts of money are being poured into housing efforts to get homeless people into homes, but those efforts are being offset by an increase in evictions.
“We have organizations that should really be making that progress and reducing the numbers,” Nelson said. But a corresponding increase in evictions “could undo the very positive progress that we’re making,” he added.
Efforts to prevent homelessness in expensive markets
Some Los Angeles City Council members and county supervisors have proposed providing free attorneys to tenants in eviction court; currently, most tenants fight evictions without representation. Outreach workers are also devising new strategies to reach out to Los Angeles tenants at risk of eviction and offer them help to stay housed.
Some people who become homeless don’t lose their housing through a formal eviction process: The UCSF study found that many didn’t have rental agreements before they became homeless, and instead lived in double-dating with family or friends, or in overcrowded apartments with a primary tenant paying rent.
Whatever housing people were clinging to before they lost their homes, homeless agency officials say rents in Los Angeles are too expensive for many. A new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that a Los Angeles household would have to earn nearly $102,000 a year to live comfortably in a basic two-bedroom apartment. Someone making the minimum wage would need to work three or more full-time jobs just to afford the $2,544 monthly rent for such an apartment.
Adams Kellam, CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said service providers need to keep homeless people housed, but the city also needs to help prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
“We need to continue to talk about prevention,” Adams-Kellam said. “If we can do something to stem the tide of people falling, that would be really encouraging.”
If you’re concerned about affordable housing
For people living in Los Angeles, the Board of Supervisors and City Council have the most direct impact on home affordability in their neighborhoods.
The best way to keep up with what’s going on in your local government is to attend public meetings of your city council or local commission. Here are some tips for getting involved.
Review meeting schedules and agendas: City councils typically meet at least twice a month, although larger city councils may meet weekly. Committees and boards tend to meet more frequently, usually once a month. Schedules and meeting agendas can be found on your local government’s website or posted in City Hall. Find more tips here.
Learn the jargon: Closed sessions, consent calendars, and more! Definitions of commonly used terms can be found here. How to submit public comments: All public meetings allow members of the community to submit comments, whether or not they are on the agenda. The meeting agenda will provide specific instructions for submitting public comments. More information can be found here.
If you’re concerned about affordable housing
For people living in Los Angeles, the Board of Supervisors and City Council have the most direct impact on home affordability in their neighborhoods.
The best way to keep up with what’s going on in your local government is to attend public meetings of your city council or local commission. Here are some tips for getting involved.
Review meeting schedules and agendas: City councils typically meet at least twice a month, although larger city councils may meet weekly. Committees and boards typically meet less frequently than once a month. Schedules and meeting agendas can be found on your local government website or posted in City Hall. Find more tips here.
Learn the jargon: closed sessions, consent calendars, and more! Here are definitions of commonly used terms.
How to submit public comments: All public meetings allow members of the community to submit comments, whether or not they are on the agenda. The meeting agenda will have specific instructions for submitting public comments. More information can be found here.
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