LOS ANGELES (NEWSnet/AP) — Los Angeles County’s annual count of homeless residents began Tuesday night.
About 6,000 volunteers with Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority took part in the effort’s main component, the unsheltered street tally.
The so-called “point-in-time” count will take place over three days and aims to estimate how many people are unhoused and what services they may require. Results of the count are expected to be released in late spring or early summer.
The tally, which also makes use of demographic surveys and shelter counts, is mandated by the federal government for cities to receive specific types of funding.
The 2023 initiative reported more than 75,500 people were homeless on a given night in LA County, a 9% rise from a year prior. About 46,200 were within the city of Los Angeles.
Since 2015, homelessness has increased by 70% in the county and 80% within the city.
Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, joined city and county officials to open the count in the North Hollywood neighborhood of LA’s San Fernando Valley.
The count “is an important tool to confront the homelessness crisis,” Bass said. “Homelessness is an emergency, and it will take all of us working together to confront this emergency.”
On her first day in office in December 2022, Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness. A year into her term, she said more than 21,000 unhoused people were moved into leased hotels or other temporary shelter during 2023, a 28% increase from the prior year.
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