The 2007 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, released today by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), shows a 24% decrease in the overall estimate of the number of homeless people in Santa Monica on any given night.  The estimate for January 2007 was 1,506.  A similar count conducted in January 2005 found an estimated 1,991 homeless people in Santa Monica on any given night.  This year’s count also found a 30% decrease in the number of people directly enumerated on Santa Monica’s streets–from 949 in 2005 to 661. 

LAHSA is the agency formed through a joint powers agreement between the City and County of Los Angeles that applies for and administers funding for homeless programs across the county.  The City of Santa Monica is included in the continuum of care under LAHSA’s jurisdiction.  The countywide homeless counts in January of 2005 and 2007 were in response to a federal mandate that communities receiving federal funds to address homelessness must conduct biennial counts of their homeless population. LAHSA and its consultant, Applied Survey Research (ASR), conducted a count of homeless persons throughout the county, excluding the three cities with independent continuums, on January 23 through 25, 2007.   

For Los Angeles County, there was a 17% decrease in the estimated number of homeless persons at any point in time, from 88,345 in 2005 to 73,702 in 2007. 

Additional findings for the City of Santa Monica include that on any given night, as many as 80% of homeless persons are unsheltered, compared to 83% countywide.  This is despite the fact that the 2007 count found 58 more people in shelters than in 2005, a 24% increase due to increased capacity.   

The full report is available at www.lahsa.org.

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