Preliminary results of last month’s Los Angeles County homelessness count show a year-to-year drop in the number of people living outdoors, according to data released months earlier than usual.
The data, from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, is incomplete. It was distributed three months earlier in the process, as the agency faces an upcoming vote that could see the county take over direct oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars the county currently sends LAHSA every year.
Usually, no data is released from the annual Point-in-Time homelessness count until late June, after the full count is tabulated and a survey is conducted to estimate how many people were living in the tents and vehicles counted early in the year.
But this year, LAHSA Chief Executive Va Lecia Adams Kellum handled it differently. She released raw, incomplete data, as county supervisors prepare to vote April 1 on having the county seize control of funding after a pair of scathing audits about LAHSA.
Adams Kellum’s administration sent out a news release Thursday about the preliminary drop in the count and calling for continued county support of LAHSA. The release said the data indicates the unsheltered homeless count in L.A. County will drop by 5% to 10% when the final count is released later this year. That follows last year’s count showing a drop after years of increases.
“It’s important for decision-makers to focus on change while continuing the momentum LAHSA, the rehousing system, the city and county have produced over the last two years,” Adams Kellum said in the release.
“L.A. has been waiting years for this moment. Let’s trust what we have built and the real progress we are making,” she added.
The projected reduction in street homelessness “is a…
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