Under Mayor Bass’ comprehensive strategy, homelessness continues to decline
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released the results of the 2025 Annual Homeless Count showing for the first time a second consecutive year of decline in the number of people experiencing homelessness. The 2025 Count, designed by University of Southern California and conducted in alignment with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standards, reports a 17.5% decrease in street homelessness since before Mayor Bass took office.
These results follow Mayor Bass’ unprecedented efforts to implement a comprehensive strategy that confronts street homelessness. The status quo had been to leave people on the street until permanent housing was completed, which resulted in Angelenos languishing on the street with no end in sight. Mayor Bass rejected that approach and has focused on ending the humanitarian crisis on the street while expediting the building of permanent housing.
“Homelessness has gone down two years in a row because we chose to act with urgency and reject the broken status quo of leaving people on the street until housing was built. These results aren’t just data points—they represent thousands of human beings who are now inside, and neighborhoods that are beginning to heal,” said Mayor Bass. “This Point in Time Count makes one thing clear: change is possible when we refuse to accept encampments as normal and refuse to leave people behind. I want to recognize the Inside Safe Team for the work they do to build trust and bring people inside, Chair of the Council Housing and Homelessness Committee Councilwoman Raman for her partnership and Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum for her dedicated and unwavering leadership. My commitment to confront this crisis head-on is stronger and more urgent than ever.”
On her first day in office, Mayor Bass declared a state of emergency to urgently get people off the streets. Her signature initiative Inside Safe has brought thousands of people inside and resolved more than 100 often entrenched and longstanding encampments in every council district in the city. By breaking with the status quo, Mayor Bass has spearheaded needed policy changes that are preventing people from being housed, is accelerating the building of more than 30,000 units of affordable housing, advanced innovating housing solutions through LA4LA and is keeping people from falling into homelessness in the first place through a research-proven anti-eviction program led by the Mayor’s Fund. These system-wide changes and this year’s results are made possible in part because of the collaboration and partnership with Chair of the City Council Housing and Homelessness Committee Councilmember Nithya Raman, LAHSA CEO Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum and other regional leaders.
This year’s Point in Time Count results show:
- Homelessness reported to have declined for two years in a row in L.A. for the first time.
- Street homelessness reduced by 17.5% since Mayor Bass took office in December of 2022. This is the largest decrease over two years since the Point in Time Count began in 2005.
- The number of makeshift shelters, tents, cars, vans and RVs declined for a second time in a row, down 13.5%.
- Permanent housing placements in Los Angeles City are at an all-time high.
Mayor Bass’ progress to save lives and reduce homelessness is measurable and visible. Earlier this month, the RAND Corporation released its annual report showing a 49% decline in the number of people experiencing street homelessness in Hollywood from last year to the year prior, drawing a connection to the work of Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe program. The report also showed a decrease in Venice. Inside Safe has conducted more than a dozen operations in Hollywood and monitors all locations to continue bringing people inside from those sites. In 2024, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released the results showing the first decrease in homelessness in Los Angeles City for the first time in years — bucking nationwide and statewide trends.