Homelessness Holds Steady Across Three L.A. Neighborhoods as Rough Sleeping Reaches a Four-Year High

For Release

ThursdayMay 21, 2026

The overall number of unsheltered people in three Los Angeles neighborhoods—Hollywood, Skid Row, and Venice—remained flat in 2025, but rough sleeping reached its highest level in four years, according to a new RAND report.

The 2025 Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey (LA LEADS) found that the combined unsheltered population was statistically unchanged between December 2024 and January 2026, but the composition of the population shifted substantially: rough sleeping—sleeping without a tent, vehicle or other shelter—rose by 20%, reaching its highest level in four years of monitoring.

“The total count held steady in 2025, but the makeup of the population continued to shift substantially,” said Louis Abramson, the study's lead author and an adjunct researcher at RAND. “Compared to a year ago, more people are sleeping completely unsheltered, more spread out geographically, and with fewer connections to the systems that contributed to the prior year's progress.”