Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass once set an ambitious target: end street homelessness in the city by 2026.
She made that promise publicly in 2023, saying, “My goal would be really to end street homelessness.” Bass clarified that people could still be living in shelters or interim housing, but she wanted to eliminate the spectacle of people dying on the streets.
Now 2026 has arrived, and Los Angeles is facing an uncomfortable reality.
The latest homeless count shows that the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city increased 3.4% to an estimated 45,194. Even more troubling for Bass, the number of people living unsheltered — outdoors or in vehicles — climbed 7.9% after two consecutive years of declines.
