The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) announced the results of the 2025 Greater LA Homeless Count this week, touting a reduction in homelessness for the second year in a row.
However, those who work in organizations that serve the unhoused community expressed cautious optimism. While the report indicates fewer people are living on the streets, they don’t want the city and county of LA to loose sight of what needs to be done to tackle the continued homelessness crisis.
The results of the homeless count indicated a reduction across a number of metrics. In LA County, homelessness fell by 4%, while it declined by 3.4% in the city. When it comes to the number of unsheltered homeless, it decreased by 9.5% in the county and 7.9% in the city.
The announcement was attended by several LA officials, including Mayor Karen Bass; Wendy Greuel, chair of the LAHSA Commission; Stephanie Klasky-gamer, president and CEO of LA Family Housing (LAFH); and Randall Trice, chief programme officer for Whittier First Day – an organization that helps homeless and at-risk individuals and families transition to self-sufficiency.
“This lasting change was only possible as we chose to act with urgency, and we chose to reject the status quo, which has been leaving people on the street until housing was built,” Bass said. “It’s everybody’s goal that people achieve permanent housing. However, the notion that you should stay in a tent until permanent housing is built is unacceptable and is rejected. That’s what I mean when I say disrupting the status quo.”
She added that in the two years since taking office and declaring a state of emergency on homelessness, the city has conducted more than 100 operations in every council district through the Inside Safe initiative to move people from encampments into homes. Bass said that these numbers represent people whose “lives … have been saved and neighborhoods that are beginning to heal.”
Trice highlighted the impact of the LA County Pathway Home initiative,which brings people off the street into available interim housing,and the role his team has played in it.He added that the stats from the homeless count reflect people being given a second chance.
“Pathway Home is one of the most effective responses we have seen addressing homelessness at the ground level since its launch,” Trice said. “Fifty-six encampments have been resolved. Over 600 individuals have been placed into interim housing, and 311 people have already transitioned to permanent supportive housing.
“at First Day, we’ve had the priviledge of serving 100 to 150 individuals through this initiative at our Pathway Home site,” he continued. “I am proud to report that 78 of our clients have already been matched to permanent supportive housing.”
Klasky-Gamer said that LAFH is proud of the results, but added that behind the figures lies a “basic truth” – the primary driver of homelessness in LA is the persistent affordable housing shortage. She explained that renters in the region need to earn around $50 an hour, nearly three times the city’s minimum wage, just to afford an average two-bedroom apartment.
She pointed to a 2021 report by the California Housing Partnership, which found that approximately 500,000 low-income renter households in the county don’t have access to an affordable home.
“These are families, seniors, veterans and individuals who are vulnerable and in need of our immediate attention,” Klasky-Gamer said. “Addressing this challenge requires us to significantly increase housing production and increase the supply of rental subsidies critical to helping our participants increase access [to] existing units in the market.”
Concerns Over Budget Cuts
Rowan Vansleve – president of Hope the Mission, a nonprofit that serves the homeless by providing food, shelter and job training in the San Fernando Valley and LA – said that these numbers are encouraging and gave credit to all the parties involved for their efforts.
However, he expressed concern not only with the other crises’ that have impacted LA, including the January wildfires and the recent federal immigration raids, but with budget cuts that will be affecting programs that benefit the homeless population.What Ransleve is most worried about are cuts to housing vouchers and street outreach teams.
“We need to continue funding street outreach and housing navigation,which is the vouchers that put people in permanent housing,as the reduction of funding that we’ve seen in those two areas means that this time next year,we might not be celebrating another victory,” Vansleve warned.“We might bounce backwards.”
He explained that it’s a tough balancing act. Without street outreach teams,empty shelter beds won’t get filled,and if there is a lack of housing vouchers,shelters will fill up and people won’t be able to transition to permanent housing.
even if the number of unhoused individuals has decreased, Vansleve continued, there are still well over 65,000 homeless people in the county. Hope the Mission remains as busy as ever, but with less financial donations coming their way due to the current economic climate, combined with the pullback from all levels of government, Vansleve said there’s a lot of tension and pressure to work out what they’re going to look like in the future.
“I think the realy big story, though, is that we’re still in the middle of a crisis,” Vansleve said. “By no means is the crisis over, but it does prove that investing in this issue does show results. … There’s a lot to celebrate here, but now is not the time to take foot off the gas, and it does feel a little bit like we’re at risk of that.”
Mel Tillekeratne – co-founder and executive director of The Shower of Hope, a nonprofit that provides homeless people in LA County with hygiene services – echoed similar concerns. The nonprofit has also been subject to cuts,as it lost one of its biggest contracts with the city of LA. While half of their programs are still active, the program exclusively for the city has been shut down.
“Showers don’t solve homelessness, but it’s one of those tools that is needed to create that whole network of services working,” Tillekeratne said. “Considering the funding that is being lost over programs across the board, it’s definitely going to have an impact over the next two to three years.”
On top of cuts to Medicaid and the immigration raids, he expressed concerns about the restructuring of LAHSA, after the County Board of Supervisors voted in April to withdraw funding and establish a new consolidated department for homeless services.He hopes that whatever replaces LAHSA is consolidated fast because if funding is interrupted, it coudl have devastating impacts on programs that rely on it.
“Regardless of what the homeless count is, … it’s critically important that the city of LA focuses on how we go forward addressing homelessness beyond LAHSA,” Tillekeratne said.
