(California Globe) Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass promised to end street homelessness. Instead, the latest numbers show her administration is delivering the opposite. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, released in late July, the city’s overall homeless population rose 3.4 percent to 45,194 people. Even more damning, the unsheltered population (those living on sidewalks, in tents, vehicles, or makeshift shelters) jumped 7.9 percent to 29,115. Across LA County, the figure climbed 1.2 percent to 73,040.
These are not statistical blips. After two years of modest declines that Bass touted as historic progress, the trend has reversed. LAHSA attributes much of the increase to funding cuts that paused enrollments in Time Limited Subsidies, causing permanent housing placements to drop from roughly 28,600 in 2024 to 23,532 in 2025. Economic pressures and a chronic shortage of affordable units continue to push new people onto the streets faster than the system can absorb them. With those bottlenecks still in place and no meaningful course correction in sight, the next count is all but certain to paint an even bleaker picture.