California has the most homeless people of any state. But L.A. is still a national model

With tens of thousands of homeless people living on the streets, Los Angeles officials have increasingly found themselves as the subject of criticism for what many Angelenos see as a failure to keep up with a problem that seems to be getting worse.

But across the country, L.A. isn ‘t considered to be a failure. To the contrary, at last week ‘s National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Washington, D.C., attendees repeatedly held up both the city, the county and the state as models of political will for getting people into housing.

“I think there ‘s actually incredibly strong things happening across California, “said Matthew Doherty, executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. “In Los Angeles, there are some of the best permanent supportive housing providers in the country, with some of the most innovative projects, engagement of the public health system directly in the work of homelessness, the city- county partnership... There ‘s a lot that ‘s going on there.”

The confab attracted more than 2, 000 homeless advocates, outreach workers and many others working in a well air- conditioned hotel to stem the tide of homelessness. They attended sessions that included research on unsheltered people and how to build permanent supportive housing quickly. Some also went to Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress.

Although Los Angeles wasn ‘t mentioned in most sessions, the state ‘s swelling crisis was a constant presence for many attendees. L.A., like much of California, served as a cautionary tale for what they didn ‘t want their cities to become and a place from where they could learn how to get people off the streets and into housing, according to more than a dozen people who spoke with The Times.

In Seattle, for example, officials are looking to replicate the city- county set up of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority as they contemplate how to cooperate across jurisdictions.

California accounts for most of the country ‘s homeless population, and it ‘s growing. In 2018, there were 129, 972 people on the streets on any given night statewide. The most recent count conducted in Los Angeles County revealed that there were nearly 59, 000 homeless people in 2019, while there were 9, 784 homeless people in San Francisco, including in jails, hospitals and rehab centers -- a jump of 30 percent from 2017.

But officials from other urban areas told The Times they are taking cues from Los Angeles and San Francisco, and, as a result, are making progress in reducing their homeless populations.

In 2018, for example, there were 552, 830 homeless people across the United States, a dramatic decrease from 2008 when there were 639, 784, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which hosted last week ‘s conference.

Still, the numbers have begun to tick up again over the last few years -- occurring against the backdrop of a broader, national discussion about affordable housing -- and officials worry the trend will continue.

“I think that there are times where the rest of the country is a little bit jealous of the amount of money that seems to be in L.A., “said Iain De Jong, a consultant who helps cities formulate plans to address homelessness. “One of the things that you ‘ll hear in other communities is sentiments like, ‘Well, if we had even a fraction of that money or if we could figure out how to get a fraction of our sales tax, our world would be wonderful.’”