LA County Still Leads Nation in Number of Homeless

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

June 21 -- A report on regional homelessness released last week gave Los Angeles County the dubious distinction of not only maintaining the nation’s largest homeless population, but also claiming the largest number of people who have trouble getting off, and staying off, the streets.

County officials from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) -- which spearheaded an unprecedented $300,000, three-day count in January -- estimate there are 83,347 homeless individuals living in the metropolitan area, close to the 84,000 used in estimates from previous years.

Combined with the 7,600 homeless individuals estimated to be living in Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach, the total number in the County is some 91,000, according to a report released by LAHSA Thursday.

While LAHSA officials said that figure was not surprising, what caught their attention was that nearly 42 percent -- or 34,898 -- of those living on the streets are “chronically homeless,” which means they have been living on the streets for more than a year or have had four episodes of homelessness in the last three years.

The “chronically homeless” also have one or more disabilities, mental illness and substance addiction or suffer from other health problems, according to the report.

That number is much higher than the 7,500 to 10,000 thought to be chronically homeless in previous years, according to LAHSA’s Executive Director Mitchell Netburn.

“The results clearly establish that we have an enormous task ahead of us as we develop strategies and a campaign to end homelessness,” Netburn said in a statement last week. “Rather than being daunted by the numbers, we must use them to strengthen our resolve to end the tragedy of homelessness.”

Of the nearly 35,000 chronically homeless individuals, 55 percent have three or more “disabilities,” such as mental impairment, a physical impediment or substance abuse, according to the report.

Homelessness affects certain racial groups more drastically than it does others, according to the report.

Blacks, who comprise only 9 percent of the county’s total population, account for 39 percent of its homeless population, according to the report.

Of the total homeless population, 29 percent was white, 25 percent Latino and the other 7 percent was identified as multi-racial or “other.”

The report’s findings were the benchmark used by LAHSA to request nearly $60 million in federal grants from the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) earlier this month, up nearly 20 million, according to the report.

HUD makes up nearly 80 percent of the funding for LAHSA, and federal authorities have said funding will be tied directly to those count results. Similar counts took place across the country over the last year and have since been released. Los Angeles is one of the last to organize and release the data.

The information -- culled from three day head count of the County’s homeless population, census data, other demographic reports and phone surveys -- will be further broken down in coming weeks to provide information for cities and council districts, said LAHSA officials.

For cities across the county, especially Santa Monica, the data will be an invaluable tool to give guide service programs and help buttress applications for federal and state funding.