Governor Gavin Newsom & Mayor Karen Bass are celebrating a 1,500 drop in the Los Angeles homeless population — Except 2,500 homeless people died on the streets in LA County in just one year’s time
Newsom and Bass celebrated the reported 3.4% drop, a number based on the latest info from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).
The survey showed the city’s homeless population decreased from 45,252 in 2024 to 43,699 in 2025—a net reduction of 1,553 people.
However, Los Angeles County reported that 2,508 homeless people died in one year’s time marking a 5.6% increase from the year before and an average of nearly seven deaths per day.
The mortality rate among the homeless population was 4.5 times higher than the general population in Los Angeles county.
The large number of homeless deaths continue to happen even though California spent about $24 billion on homeless programs from 2018 through 2020 – with more recent estimates showing that the total has risen to about $37 billion since then – some of it paid for by the federal government – meaning taxpayers in different states.
According to the most recent data California’s homeless population is more than 187,000 ( which is about 24% of the nation’s total homeless population of about 771,500.)
