LOS ANGELES—While homelessness across the United States increased by a dramatic 18 percent in 2024 compared to a year earlier, Los Angeles was among a handful of cities bucking the national trend—with a 5 percent drop in unsheltered homelessness over the same period, the first such drop in seven years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Friday.
HUD’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates—an annual snapshot of the number of people in shelters, temporary housing or unsheltered settings—found more than 770,000 people nationwide were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024, an 18 percent increase from 2023. California had a 3.1 percent increase in homeless people.
