The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count: Demographic Survey

About the Count

The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is a point-in-time estimate of people experiencing homelessness in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, which covers all of Los Angeles County except the cities of Pasadena, Glendale and Long Beach. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires it, so that communities can see how investment in homeless services is affecting homelessness.

Since 2017, the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work has worked with LAHSA on the design, implementation and analysis of the Count, with partners at UCLA and Young People to the Front. The work sits within USC's Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity Research (H3E), which conducts intervention-focused research and trains homeless service practitioners.

H3E's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the Hilton Foundation and Google.org.

Visit H3E's Website

How the Count Works

The estimate is built from four sources, gathered from December to March and analysed by USC.

1
Point-in-Time Count
Volunteers count unsheltered people and dwellings (tents, vehicles and makeshift shelters) across the county.
2
Demographic Survey
Trained USC survey teams interview a sample of unsheltered adults across the county between December and March each year, so the unhoused population can be described by age, race, gender, veteran status, health and more.
3
Youth Count
A dedicated count and survey of unsheltered young people ages 18-25 experiencing homelessness, coordinated with Young People to the Front.
4
Sheltered Count
Administrative data from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), plus reporting from shelters that are not in HMIS.
5
Analysis and Release
USC combines the sources into population estimates and publishes a methodology report; LAHSA releases the results and data summaries.

2026 at a Glance

LAHSA released the 2026 Homeless Count results on July 24, 2026. After two years of decline, homelessness in Los Angeles County rose slightly, by 1.2%, and by 3.4% in the City of Los Angeles; LAHSA notes neither change is statistically significant. The full results page breaks the estimate down by region, age, shelter status and the reasons people gave, with four years of trends.

73,040
People experiencing homelessness in LA County
+1.2% from 2025 (not statistically significant)
45,194
People experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles
+3.4% from 2025 (not statistically significant)
67%
Unsheltered countywide
49,002 people; 24,038 were sheltered
45%
People experiencing chronic homelessness
32,563 people countywide

Explore the full 2026 results

How the 2026 Estimate was Built

1
Unsheltered Adults: 64.3%
A visual street count of people and dwellings (cars, vans, RVs, tents and makeshift shelters), converted to people using USC's demographic survey. Each dwelling held 1.86 people on average in 2026, up 16% since 2023.
2
Sheltered Adults and Youth: 33.0%
A count of people in shelters, plus administrative data from the Homeless Management Information System.
3
Unsheltered Youth: 2.7%
A survey-based count using respondent-driven sampling.