‘We Aren’t Going To Solve Homelessness’: Inside LA’s Homeless Count

LOS ANGELES, CA– Volunteers cruised darkened streets Tuesday night, tallying tents and RVs from car windows during Los Angeles’ annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count — a volunteer-run snapshot that allows the state to unlock hundreds of millions in federal dollars. The snapshot relies on drive-by guesses, and no volunteers dare exit their vehicles.

The PIT count, mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2007, provides a single-night estimate of sheltered and unsheltered homelessness to guide federal funding through Continuum of Care (CoC) grants. HUD has required PIT counts since 2005, but counting unsheltered homeless began in 2007 to improve data consistency for funding decisions.  (RELATED: Newsom’s 9% Homeless ‘Win’ Is Built On Half-Baked Data)

PEP RALLY FOR THE HOMELESS 

With the three-day PIT count beginning on Tuesday, volunteers gathered in a downtown community center. They detailed the ArcGIS QuickCapture app they would use for the night and provided instructions: stay in vehicles, observe and mark tents, vehicles or people, and prioritize safety. No approaching tents, no knocking on doors.

Volunteers were given neon yellow vests, and locations on physical maps marked where they headed out for the night to count the homeless from their cars.

Paired with a group of three people, the Daily Caller News Foundation observed how the process worked. With one driver, one navigator and one counter, they headed into a fringe tract near Pico and Union — residential blocks, strip malls and freeway underpasses, far from Skid Row’s density.

At 5 mph, headlights swept the residential streets.

“So, when we get to these areas, we’re going to want to go pretty slow. So we can properly look at people,” Adam, the navigator, told Kate who was driving for the night.

Adam had prior experience with the PIT process, telling the DCNF that he volunteered last year to participate in the count.

First spotting a man lying on the ground within the map’s perimeter, Alavro marked him down as over 24 years old. Driving further into the neighborhood streets, Alavro would call out to Kate if she needed to slow down or ask the group what they made of certain configurations in the street, guessing if it was a tent or just another pile of trash.

With the full process taking roughly under 90 minutes, Adam noted that the tract seemed less dense than last year.

A homeless encampment is seen in Skid Row on July 25, 2025. (Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

“Last time, you’d have three RVs in a row or whatever, stuff like that,” Adam told the DCNF.

When discussing potential flaws in the counting system, the group acknowledged that it was an “imperfect science,” but believed the task was simple enough to complete. Alavro, at one point, suggested using drones, with Adam chiming in on how volunteer safety is valued.

“It’s the only other way I would think about it. Like, how can you canvas a large area where there’s not, like, a specific target? It’s not like a census where you go and knock on the door,””Alavro said.

“Well, yeah, that’s the thing, too. They’re also trying to keep people’s safety. Like, that’s part of the thing,” Adam added. “We’re not going up to tents and knocking on anything. Like, how many people are in here? Because, we’re all volunteers trying to get home safe.”

The tally for the night stayed modest: RVs from pristine to beat-up, tents, vehicles, scattered individuals.

The PIT spans three nights, with teams logging real-time via the Quick Capture app at night to minimize double-counting per HUD rules. Critics note undercounts and hidden cases (i.e. homeless living in out of sight locations), but it remains the key metric for federal funding.

OFFICIALS BEG FOR MORE MONEY 

Prior to the night beginning for volunteers, Councilmember Nithya Raman, chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, praised recent progress.

“Over the last two years, as Gita said, we have seen measurable drops in unsheltered homelessness in the city of Los Angeles, thanks to incredible work and investments,” she said.

She called the PIT count one tool among many. Despite the praise for city hall, Raman pleaded with state lawmakers not to cut their funding for the new fiscal year amid speculation of significant budget cuts.

“So I’m asking you, our state representatives, and to our governor, please, please help us at this moment. Please make sure that we can keep this work going. Please make sure that we can make progress, not slide backwards on this, the most important issue for so many Angelenos, and the most important issue cited by voters over and over again across California,” Raman said.

Adam Murray, CEO of the Inner City Law Center hosting the event, stressed the need for accurate data.

“Inner City Law Center has participated… because we recognize how important it is to have as accurate data as possible about who is on our streets, in our shelters, living in their vehicles,” Murray said. “We want to solve this problem.”

He described progress as incremental at best.

“The simple fact is that we are not going to solve homelessness… until we do two things,” Murray added. “First of all, we have to focus much more on preventing homelessness before it happens.”

“And relatedly, and also very importantly, we have to figure out how we can make housing more affordable in Los Angeles, particularly for the low-income individuals and families who are on the cusp of homelessness and in danger of becoming homeless,” Murray said.

FUNDING POURING IN 

Over the years, critics have pointed to undercounting and inconsistent local methods to call for better estimation techniques and more rigorous training. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), as the lead agency for the Los Angeles CoC, works closely with HUD on data collection through the Homeless Management Information System and emphasizes accuracy to secure and justify grants.

For fiscal year 2024, HUD awarded more than $220 million to the Los Angeles CoC for renewal and new projects, up from $188 million the year before. That money is supposed to help shelters, permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing and outreach.

HUD did not respond to the DCNF’s request regarding its collaboration with LAHSA and whether there will be further oversight in the system.

But despite the funds, California’s homeless population has risen roughly 60% since 2015, from about 116,000 to around 187,000 in recent estimates, according to HUD data. In Los Angeles County, the 2025 PIT count reached 72,195 — a modest 4.1% drop from the prior year, per LAHSA figures — but the state still holds the nation’s largest homeless population.

Unsheltered homelessness dropped 7.9% in Los Angeles City and 9.5% countywide in 2025 per LAHSA. But audits show oversight gaps: a 2024 federal review cited California for failing to properly protect $319 million of HUD funds due to its inadequate fraud detection policies.

As volunteers slowly began to return to the center well into the night, they swapped notes as officials collected information for their data. Billions in federal dollars keep flowing in, modest gains appear, but the car-window tallies continue — and the streets remain full.

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