by According to a major poll released Monday, homelessness in Los Angeles decreased for the second consecutive year, indicating a consistent decline in the number of individuals sleeping outside during a multi-year campaign to remove people from street encampments.
The results of the February regional count were seen as generally good news in the country’s second-largest city, which has been plagued by a severe housing crisis and experienced a spike in homelessness following the Covid-19 outbreak.
In Los Angeles County, a vast and dispersed metropolis with a population of over 10 million, over 72,000 individuals are still homeless despite the decreases.
Specifically, there were 9.5 percent fewer persons sleeping in cars, abandoned buildings, sidewalk camps, and other inappropriate places to live in Los Angeles County and 7.9 percent fewer in the City of Los Angeles than the previous year.
According to the count, thousands of people moved indoors, resulting in a cumulative decrease in unsheltered homelessness of 14% in Los Angeles County and a record 17.5% in the city during a two-year period.
The trend was ascribed by local officials to a flurry of regional initiatives and billions of dollars in public spending over the past few years, including a state of emergency on homelessness proclaimed by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass following her election in 2022 and countywide taxes to help fund affordable housing.
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