Santee Court Lofts

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Despite the ongoing recession and soaring unemployment, a new study says that homelessness in Los Angeles County has decreased by 38% since 2007.The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority conducted the count over three days in January, enlisting about 3,000 people to walk census tracts throughout the county (Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena did their own counts). The study found that the number of people homeless on any given night in the region has shrunk from 68,808 to 42,694.

Mike Arnold, executive director of LAHSA, hesitated to credit the reduction to any particular program or trend, but said the drop comes as public agencies have focused more on getting people housed than offering other stop-gap services.

“We have really a remarkable group of agencies who have transformed themselves from making homelessness more comfortable to actually focusing on outcomes,” Arnold said.

The biennial count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which uses the statistics as a guideline for distributing federal funds to support homeless services.

The report is not complete: LAHSA is still analyzing its data, looking into changes specific to certain demographics and geographic areas in the city, including Skid Row.

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