On Sept. 19, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released its 2019 Housing Inventory Count, which found that in late January the Los Angeles homeless services system offered over 21,000 housing units and over 15,000 shelter beds to homeless residents across the Los Angeles Continuum of Care.

During the HIC, the LA CoC contained 21,221 units of permanent supportive housing, other permanent housing and rapid re-housing. Over 52% of the units offered were permanent supportive housing, units for homeless residents with disabilities or families in which at least one child has a disability. Homeless residents in need of short-term stabilization services or rental assistance found more help with a 600+ unit increase in the number of rapid re-housing units to a total of 3,553.

In addition to the housing offered by permanent projects, the LA CoC held capacity for 15,617 shelter beds. Over three-quarters of all beds in this category were used in emergency shelters. Families used over half of the emergency shelter beds, and adult individuals used 45% of the remaining emergency shelter beds.

The LA CoC not only offered over 15,000 shelter beds but enhanced the services attached to the beds offered through its shelters. These enhanced services helped 49% of families in interim housing exit those programs into permanent housing.

“We know that housing ends homelessness, so it is encouraging to see Los Angeles County continue to add to the number of places that our homeless neighbors can sleep at night,” said Peter Lynn, executive director of LAHSA. “We also know that this humanitarian crisis persists in every corner of the county. While LAHSA will continue to work with its partners to give our homeless neighbors more paths into permanent housing, all jurisdictions must take strides to add more affordable housing to their inventory for us to succeed in keeping our neighbors off the streets.”

By the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year, LAHSA estimates that over 8,000 permanent supportive units will come online.

“On our present course, it will take far too long to build far too few units of housing to effectively end this crisis. More resources must be dedicated to building the amount of supportive housing necessary to make a significant impact on homelessness over the next five years,” Lynn added.

Conducted concurrently with the annual homeless count, the Housing Inventory Count is a point-in-time inventory of the beds available to people experiencing homelessness in the LA CoC. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires Continuums of Care to produce the HIC and uses the data to determine federal funding for homeless services throughout the country.

For information, visit lahsa.org/documents?id=3674-2019-housing-inventory-count.