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LOS ANGELES (CN) — Homelessness rose in LA compared to last year, following two consecutive years of the number going down.
Mayor Karen Bass blamed the disappointing results of the homeless count, performed in January and set to be formally announced Friday, on cuts to state and federal funding.
“For two years straight, we drove down homelessness by historic margins — but as expected, last year our efforts ultimately couldn’t keep up with policies and funding cuts at the federal and state levels that pushed more people onto the streets," Bass said in a written statement. In particular, she blamed the Trump administration, which she said had “driven up the cost of gas, groceries and rent — pushing more families to the edge — and slashed critical safety net funding.”
The Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) had scheduled a Friday afternoon press conference to announce the results of the 2026 count, a legally mandated “point in time count” used to calculate the number of men and women living on the streets, in shelters and without a home in the city and county. When the count yields positive news, as it did last year, elected officials are on hand to proudly trumpet their success. This year’s announcement was set to be made by two LAHSA officials.
On Thursday, the results of the count were leaked to the media. Local news station Fox 11 reported homelessness had risen by roughly 3.5%, while the number of unsheltered homeless — arguably the more important figure — had risen by about 8%. Those numbers were confirmed by the Los Angeles Times.
The count results are a blow to Bass, who is running for reelection. Her 2022 election was based primarily on fighting homelessness, which had been rising in both the city and county for more than a decade. Once in office, it was by far her top priority. She declared a state of emergency and enacted a signature program, Inside Safe, which concentrated on clearing encampments and pushing those living in them into shelters. The approach seemed to working; homelessness fell 2% in 2024, and 3% in 2025.
“We have reduced homelessness in Los Angeles by 11% since 2023 — placing tens of thousands of Angelenos in interim housing, moving 6,000 people off the streets through Inside Safe, and housing more than 1,000 homeless veterans," Bass said in her statement.
Not everyone was convinced. Spencer Pratt, a former reality television show villain, ran a very loud and boisterous primary campaign based largely on homelessness and crime, which he depicted as out of control. Bass defended her record, pointing to the homeless count results as proof that the city was finally on the right track.
In the end, Pratt finished third, well behind both Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who will face each other in a November runoff. Raman, too, has made fighting homelessness her key issue throughout her political career. She has often argued for a softer approach, favoring outreach and increased services to seeps and encampment removals. She opposes a law that allows City Council to declare certain areas, particularly places near schools and parks, “encampment-free zones.”
Raman has not issued a comment on the count’s results.
Much of the criticism around LA’s approach to fighting homelessness has been around waste, fraud and abuse. Several nonprofit affordable housing developers have been accused of financial malfeasance, or outright fraud, and LAHSA itself has come under fire too. Last month, the Trump administration moved to suspend the joint city-county authority from receiving federal funds. LAHSA is suing to stop that effort.
But the agency is also being hit from Democrats closer to home. The LA County Board of Supervisors voted in 2025 to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of LAHSA and shift the money to a new agency.
In her statement, Bass also took aim at the beleaguered authority.
“We also have to be clear-eyed about what’s not working," Bass wrote. “For 30 years, this city has run its homeless response through LAHSA — and audits and the courts have now made plain what too many Angelenos already saw: the money wasn’t tracked, providers went unpaid, and public trust eroded. I’m not going to defend a broken system. The city must build something better — results-driven, transparent, and centered around the people we’re trying to help, not the bureaucracy.”
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