Despite a nearly $1 billion a year budget to combat homelessness, the annual count shows that the numbers actually increased since 2025.
The City of Los Angeles has a $953 million budget for fiscal year 2025-26. The County of Los Angeles has a $843 million plan funded largely through voter-approved Measure A tax revenues.
Karen Bass’ Inside Safe initiative has spent more than $300 million on clearing encampments and moving homeless into motel and hotel rooms. The county budgeted $277 million for interim housing and $239 million for permanent housing.
But the total number of homeless increased 3.4% over last year, with a 7.9% increase in those living on the street or in their vehicle.
Those statistics represent a total of 73,040 homeless within the County of Los Angeles, and 45,194 in the City of L.A.
There were some positive changes in specific groups. Family homelessness dropped 14% across the region, as did veteran homelessness.
RV dwellers dropped 21% and total visible street dwelling fell by 4.8% regionally.
The 2026 data was provided by LAHSA (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) following the annual homeless count in January of this year.
