Venice's Unhoused Population Way Up: Study Finds

VENICE, CA — Despite massive funding efforts to increase housing options and provide service, homelessness in high-priority neighborhoods of Los Angeles increased by an average of 18 percent in 2022, according to a yearlong count by the RAND Corp.

Data released Thursday showed that some areas of the city saw even more troubling spikes in homelessness. Homelessness went up by 32 percent in Venice, 14.5 percent in Hollywood and 13 percent on Skid Row.

Between September 2021 and January 2022, the total number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and living in vehicles, tents, and makeshift structures averaged 1,358 in Skid Row, 685 in Hollywood, and 523 in Venice, researchers found.

The findings are likely to ignite frustration in a city where billions in tax revenue has been allotted to combat the crisis and city leaders have vowed to make it a priority.

"Despite numerous initiatives and resources, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles has continued to increase," Rand researchers recently concluded. "Steadily rising home prices, legal challenges to planned housing developments, and lack of coordination among service entities have all contributed to this lack of progress. Furthermore, front-line workers and the individuals experiencing homelessness, who have the experiences and knowledge necessary to drive change, often lack a voice in formulating policy."

Furthermore, the researchers found that the vast majority of people interviewed were chronically unhoused for over a year and 57% for more than three years. Nearly 80 percent of 400 people surveyed said they were "continuously homeless."

The study also found a gap between the number of people wanting to get off the streets and their access to housing. Nine out of 10 respondents were interested in housing, and 29 percent were on wait lists.

The Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey — which focused on Hollywood, Skid Row and Venice — took place from September 2021 to October 2022 and is separate from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's annual tally. LAHSA is conducting its 2023 count this week and expects to have results by the spring or summer.

Jason Ward, the lead author and associate economist at RAND, said the count determined "that there is a lot to be learned by measuring progress on homelessness more regularly than the once-a-year count of unsheltered people conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority."

According to RAND, the study is the largest count of unhoused people in Los Angeles outside of LAHSA's tally. Researchers said that though the methodology was different, the survey's results found a 15% increase in homelessness in the targeted areas compared to LAHSA's last count in January 2022.

LAHSA's 2022 count revealed 41,980 unhoused people in the city of Los Angeles, up 1.7% from 2020. In the county, there were 69,144 unhoused people, an increase of 4.1%.

Last year's count was followed by criticism from some officials, including members of the City Council, who pointed to issues with accessing data related to the count and inconsistencies in communication between the agency and council districts. Some council members called for a third-party count of Los Angeles' unhoused population and a multi-year audit of authority's previous counts.

In response, LAHSA announced changes for this year's count that include using a new app, and ensuring that those counting have access to paper maps and tally sheets for counts if there are issues with connecting to the internet. Agency officials said earlier this month they also plan to hire a demographer and two data scientists for data analysis.

The RAND count determined some variation in unhoused people in the neighborhoods studied from month-to-month, with changes as high as 24%. Researchers attributed certain declines to city-authorized cleanups of encampments, but noted that the numbers came back up quickly.

Among the individuals surveyed, the most common answers for why unhoused people were not living in housing included never being contacted, privacy and safety concerns and issues with paperwork.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.