Just in the City of L.A., the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's (LAHSA) latest count shows the number of homeless ticked up 3.4% from the previous count. However, one source told Eyewitness News that the increase falls within the margin of error for the count.
That puts the city's homeless population now at just over 45,000. But if you look at those classified as "unsheltered," meaning they live on the street or in a car, that population in the city went up almost 8%, which is statistically significant.
What's striking, however, is that when looking at the data county-wide, we're not seeing the same increase. The homeless population rose just about 1% in L.A. County and the county's number of unsheltered people actually went down.
Both LAHSA and Mayor Bass are blaming a number of factors, including the sky-high cost of living and cuts in federal funding.
"My goal is to end street homelessness, to get people housed, to get them cared for, to address whatever led them to be unhoused and to move them from interim housing, to permanent housing," Bass said in a video posted to social media.
These numbers clearly are not good for the mayor as she runs for re-election. Her opponent Nithya Raman released a statement on Thursday saying the mayor's approach to this is not working.
"Leadership at City Hall has not shown the willingness to shift toward an approach that actually moves people into permanent housing. And these results make clear that the Mayor's approach is not working well enough.
The results in my district tell a different story-a significant decrease in the number of people living on our streets. Those results came from sustained, hands-on work, and I am confident we can bring that approach-and those results-citywide."
Raman is the City Council Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee.
Bass acknowledged the challenges in a statement and said she remains committed to addressing the crisis.
"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.
The Trump Administration has driven up the cost of gas, groceries, and rent - pushing more families to the edge - and slashed critical safety net funding. And, last year's 50% cut in state HHAP funding from $1 billion to $500 million - resulting in a $70 million hit to L.A. city alone - severely impacted our work to keep people housed and get more Angelenos off the streets.
We raised philanthropic dollars to help supplement the cuts, and this year I fought alongside other mayors to reverse these cuts, restoring it to $900 million.
The lack of adequate services provided by L.A. County continues to be a real problem and a contributing factor to people cycling in and out of homelessness.
Despite these headwinds, 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.
We declared a homelessness state of emergency on day one, addressed 130 encampments, and helped keep 85,000 people in their homes through eviction defense. We're doubling down on what works.
But we also have to be clear-eyed about what's not working. For thirty 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.
This crisis was ignored by city leaders for decades, it's only now that we've seen a historic decline. I will never stop fighting until we end street homelessness, because no Angeleno should be sleeping on the street."