Los Angeles posts homelessness dip, rise in first-timers

LOS ANGELES — After three years of precipitous increases, homelessness dipped slightly this year, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported last week.

But in releasing results of the 2018 count, officials also warned the number of people falling into homelessness for the first time increased, holding back the potential gains.

And the report noted that three out of four homeless people in Los Angeles County live on the street, a figure unchanged from last year.

“I’m not happy every day walking through the city, knowing that there’s as many people that are homeless, but I think it’s showing our strategies are working,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

In a statement, City Councilman Jose Huizar said more help is needed from the state. He urged Gov. Jerry Brown and other officials “to match ours and the county’s efforts and help us get people off the streets and into emergency and long-term housing and services as quickly as possible.”

The new estimate of 53,195 people living without homes across the county was about 3 percent lower than the year before. For the city of Los Angeles, the estimate of 31,516 was down about 5 percent.

City and county officials credited the modest decreases to more housing placements made possible by reserving more federal housing vouchers for homeless people, and new local money going to rental subsidies.

About 16,500 homeless people were placed in housing last year, the report said, a year-over-year boost of almost 30 percent.

Veteran homelessness, which had also increased over the last two years, was down 18 percent. About 3,900 veterans remained homeless.

The most significant demographic change was a 22 percent increase in the number of people 62 and older. Twenty-seven percent reported a serious mental illness and 15 percent a substance abuse disorder, with 10 percent reporting both. Six percent reported domestic violence as the cause of their homelessness.

The African-American homeless population declined to 35 percent of the total, matching that of Latinos, while homelessness among whites increased to 25 percent from 20 percent of the total.

Daniel Flaming, president of the Los Angeles-based research nonprofit Economic Roundtable, said he was encouraged by the drop in the number of veteran and chronically homeless people, but called for quicker action to plug the homeless pipeline.

“I think it would be a good idea for us, the analysts and providers, to move our desks onto the sidewalk so the problem becomes more immediate and urgent for us,” Flaming said.

The 2018 count estimated that more than 9,000 people became homeless for the first time, up from 8,000 the year before, and nearly half of them cited job loss or another financial setback as the cause.

Francine Orr Los Angeles Times Three out of four homeless people in Los Angeles County live on the street, a figure unchanged from last year.