The first head count of homeless people in Los Angeles County found more than 90,000 men, women and children living on streets and in encampments, vehicles and shelters -- with about 35,000 of them chronically homeless.
Previous estimates of the subgroup who have been homeless for more than a year -- and who traditionally require more intensive and costly services -- were only about 7,500 people.
The count of people who are homeless at any given time was close to prior estimates, which ranged as high as 84,000 people. The street count, using more than 1,000 paid and volunteer canvassers, was conducted in 512 census tracts over three consecutive nights in January. Separate surveys were conducted in scores of shelters, recovery facilities, jails and hospitals.
The count also included face-to-face surveys to collect detailed demographic data and a telephone survey of randomly selected households to find homeless family members who might elude street enumerators.
People who work with the homeless say they hope the new statistically accurate numbers will validate concerns they have raised for years about the extent of the problems.
Few political leaders have made the issue a priority, and homelessness was barely mentioned during the recent mayoral election.
"Our job was already quite monumental and now has become even more so," said Mitchell Netburn, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which administers federal homeless funds and commissioned the count. "This has to make our resolve that much stronger to address it. People can no longer ignore the problem or say, 'I don't see that many homeless people, where are they?' "
Details of the homeless count, one of the most ambitious in the nation, were to be presented at a news conference today.
The homeless population in greater Los Angeles -- including Santa Monica and unincorporated areas -- is 83,347, according to the count. Over the course of a year, an estimated 224,203 separate individuals are at some point homeless in greater Los Angeles.
The overall county total, including Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena -- which do their own counts -- is estimated at 90,000. That means that on any given day, the number of homeless countywide almost equals the population of Santa Barbara.
Los Angeles County officials said the numbers should prompt more intensive efforts to find solutions to the problem.
