by Vanguard Staff
LOS ANGELES — The accuracy of the newly-released 2025 Los Angeles Homeless Count is being sharply questioned by Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), which is demanding answers from the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) over discrepancies in the data and concerns about the methodology used.
The count, released on July 17 by LAHSA, reported a slight decrease in homelessness in the city. But federal Judge David Carter, who is overseeing a 2020 settlement agreement mandating the city to add 13,000 new units of shelter beds and housing by 2027, criticized Los Angeles for providing inaccurate data and falling short of its commitments under the agreement with the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights.
HHR noted that as of the release date, LAHSA had not yet published the raw count dashboard or the updated local data dashboard. The group is calling for transparency and clarity on how the count was conducted and how the findings square with judicial rulings and past assessments.
Among the key issues raised by HHR is the method of counting, particularly whether LAHSA is measuring people or encampments. Judge Carter had ruled that the city previously misrepresented encampment data by counting tents rather than individuals. If that practice continued, it could substantially undercount the number of unhoused people.
Another concern is that LAHSA’s 13.5% drop in encampment dwellings does not necessarily reflect a decline in the number of people living outside. The report doesn’t clarify where the residents of those encampments have gone—if they are still unhoused, LAHSA’s reporting may present an overly optimistic picture. The organization also questions whether LAHSA’s method of counting includes people who live in cars, RVs, or other nontraditional dwellings that were removed as part of recent enforcement actions.
HHR is also challenging LAHSA to explain how it measures permanent and interim housing outcomes. The federal court has found that the city has failed to provide accurate and verifiable numbers and cited difficulties in getting precise figures on the use of housing subsidies and expenditures on programs. A 2023 audit by Alvarez and Marsal concluded that the city could not determine how much was spent on homeless services or whether those services were effective. The audit also revealed that many individuals may have been double-counted or not counted at all, raising further questions about LAHSA’s current methodology.
Despite a reported decline in encampments, HHR notes that the number of visibly unhoused people on the streets appears unchanged or higher, with some observers estimating an average of seven people per day dying while unhoused in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, billions in public funds have been directed toward addressing the crisis, but the outcomes remain opaque.
With the number of people dying on the streets and billions being spent annually on homelessness initiatives, HHR argues that the public deserves transparency. The group is calling for immediate answers to the discrepancies between the homeless count and what is being observed on the ground, as well as in federal court proceedings.
News Flash: Organization that benefits from crisis being worse disputes numbers that show it is getting better.
In other news: “sun hot”.
This is a textbook example of why organizations that benefit from a crisis do not want to actually solve the crisis. Which is exactly why the so-called ‘harm reduction’ #cough-cough# model is so popular with the Homeless Industrial Complex.