The 2026 Homeless Count released today by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority shows a 3.4 percent increase in homelessness, (compared to 1.2 percent in other areas of LA County), with unsheltered homelessness up 7.9 percent, documenting 45,194 people homeless in the City of Los Angeles.
Despite years of urging by Housing is a Human Right (HHR), a division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), and other advocates to prioritize permanent housing, the City of Los Angeles has focused on temporary band-aid programs that have become a costly revolving door for the unhoused back onto the street.
“The 2026 Los Angeles Homeless Count has shown, once again, that the City’s policies on homelessness are a complete failure. People moving from encampments to temporary shelters, bridge housing or transitional housing are still homeless. To continue with these status-quo policies, knowing that homelessness is increasing, is unconscionable. The mayor has no other choice but to change course and embrace Housing First policies that have proven to work in other cities and states,” said Susie Shannon, Policy Director for Housing is a Human Right. “The only way to solve this crisis, as our organization has pointed out for years, is to provide a permanent home for those experiencing homelessness.”
In addition, despite the LAHSA homeless count showing a slight drop in homelessness in 2025, a RAND study showed that the number of people sleeping in the rough (without a tent or make-shift shelter) increased from 2024 to 2025. Over half of those interviewed stated that their tent was taken away by a government entity, leaving them exposed to inclement weather – extreme heat, rain and low nighttime temperatures. The mayor’s “Inside Safe” program along with CARE+ sweeps must stop this cruel practice of taking away tents. Stealing tents is cruel and sweeps homelessness under the rug.
While the root causes of homelessness are multi-factorial, high rents have the most direct impact on increases in homelessness. Los Angeles is one of the most unaffordable cities for renters in the country. More people are rent burdened in Los Angeles, paying more than 30% of their income on rent, than anywhere in the nation. A Pew Research analysis, reviewing Housing and Urban Development’s data from 2017 to 2022 and apartment list rental data covering the same period, showed that in six metro areas highlighted where homelessness rose sharply, rents increased faster than the national average. The inverse was also true. Over the same period, four urban areas featured that experienced declines in homelessness saw low rent growth.
“You cannot address homelessness without addressing high rents. As part of an effective homelessness strategy, the City of Los Angeles must support rent control propositions and lobby the State of California to repeal a state law called Costa-Hawkins, which limits rent control to buildings constructed in 1978 or earlier,” stated Shannon. “Only a few City elected officials have shown leadership in addressing Costa-Hawkins and its impact on increasing homelessness. The Mayor of Los Angeles and the City Council have the ability to utilize their resources to aggressively lobby the State of CA for the repeal of Costa-Hawkins, allowing for an expansion of rent control to tenants in Los Angeles, they just have not done that.”
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260724364448/en/
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