Since fall 2021, RAND researchers have conducted ongoing enumerations and surveys of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in three Los Angeles, California, neighborhoods: Hollywood, Skid Row, and Venice. In this report, the authors describe findings from 2024 and put them in context. This information is relevant to government and nongovernmental entities interested in addressing unsheltered homelessness in Los Angeles.

Annual Trends Among the Unsheltered in Three Los Angeles Neighborhoods

The Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey (LA LEADS) 2024 Annual Report

Louis Abramson, Sarah B. Hunter, Jason M. Ward, Michelle Bongard, Rick Garvey

ResearchPublished Jul 1, 2025

Since fall 2021, RAND researchers have conducted ongoing enumerations and surveys of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in three Los Angeles, California, neighborhoods: Hollywood, Skid Row, and Venice. These data were obtained to provide policymakers with a deeper understanding of trends in the number of, demographics of, and services being provided to unsheltered people in areas known to be epicenters of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.

The most recent full year of results from the ongoing Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey (LA LEADS) study revealed a meaningfully different picture of unsheltered homelessness in 2024 compared with past years. The number of unsheltered people declined, likely driven by increased throughput to interim and permanent housing assets. However, multiple measures of acuity among people remaining on the street appear worse, suggesting that extending the past year’s progress may require additional strategies.

Key Findings

  • The total number of unsheltered people declined by 15 percent in 2024 across the LA LEADS study area. This finding contrasts with two prior years of flat or rising trends.
  • The fraction of survey respondents who reported sleeping rough—i.e., living without a tent, vehicle, or makeshift shelter—more than doubled in Hollywood and Venice compared with past years.
  • Hollywood’s population changed most dramatically: In 2024, there were fewer Black or African American unsheltered residents compared with past years, and respondents were more likely to report receiving benefits, income, or both. Meanwhile, health status reports for these individuals worsened.
  • Venice’s population continues to report slightly higher education levels, rates of receipt of Social Security and disability benefits, and incomes. Its unsheltered residents are also more likely to be employed than those in the other study areas.
  • Skid Row’s unsheltered population continues to skew older, female, and Black or African American. Its residents are also less likely to be working and more likely to report simultaneously having mental health, physical health, and substance use disorders.
  • Interest in becoming housed remained high across all survey respondents (91 percent), but the number reporting being on a housing waitlist remained low (38 percent).
  • The three highest-rated housing-related needs that respondents reported were storage of possessions (54 percent); being allowed to stay with a partner, child, pet, or roommate (40 percent); and being allowed to stay in a particular neighborhood (39 percent).

Recommendations

  • Policymakers should continue to prioritize and streamline the creation of permanent housing assets. In Los Angeles County, 26 percent more people entered permanent housing in fiscal year 2023–2024 than in the previous fiscal year. This enhanced throughput—enabled in part by the opening of new bond-funded permanent supportive housing units—freed up interim housing beds for unsheltered residents. Continuing to fund and build these assets with urgency is critical to ensuring that Los Angeles’s substantial remaining unsheltered population has the quickest route indoors.
  • Outreach and engagement strategies should be tailored to address rough sleepers specifically. Multidisciplinary outreach teams need to prioritize this group, which may require greater collaboration across geographic areas and improved communication and data-sharing. Monitoring the results of new care-coordination models, such as the MacArthur Park Care Collaborative, will be essential. Importantly, outreach should focus not just on offering shelter but on building trust and relationships. Because rough sleepers often lack the social connections that encampment resolution programs, such as Inside Safe, may rely on, strategies should emphasize fostering these connections, particularly with outreach staff.

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Abramson, Louis, Sarah B. Hunter, Jason M. Ward, Michelle Bongard, and Rick Garvey, Annual Trends Among the Unsheltered in Three Los Angeles Neighborhoods: The Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey (LA LEADS) 2024 Annual Report. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1890-6.html.
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This research was supported by the Lowy Family and conducted in the Community Health and Environmental Policy Program within RAND Social and Economic Well-Being.

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