Homeless head downtown

Two weeks ago, downtown boosters and the LAPD were celebrating a milestone: The population of homeless people sleeping on downtown's streets had dropped to just 700 -- compared to more than 1,800 just six months earlier.

The count came amid a major LAPD crackdown on crime in skid row and the continued gentrification of downtown neighborhoods with new luxury lofts as well as trendy bars and restaurants.

But the results of an LAPD census conducted early Tuesday morning threw cold water on the celebration and served as a reminder of how intractable the homeless problem in downtown remains despite all the progress.

The census showed the first major increase in months in homeless people camping, to 921.

Capt. Andrew Smith, head of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division, which conducts the count, said the uptick was "definitely something we want to keep an eye on."

The increase coincides with the closure of most of the county's winter shelters. Officials had attributed some of the decline in homeless numbers to the fact that transients were taking advantage of those and other shelters -- and that maybe homeless people were leaving the downtown area, which has the region's largest concentration of social service providers.

Shelters in other parts of the city reported increases in homeless people from downtown after the police crackdown began.

But the numbers released Tuesday suggest that some of them appear to be coming back to downtown.

To some homelessness service providers and critics of the police action, the 30% increase in homeless camps underscores what they have long said: that police enforcement won't clean up skid row without more housing and other services for those on the streets.

"It is unfortunate," said Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission. "Every time you think you may be making some headway on getting people off the streets, this happens. We aren't providing enough beds and permanent supportive housing to go along with the police presence."

But there also is a sense that the problem could worsen again. Generally, the downtown homeless population reaches its height during summer, so officials say counts might rise later this year.

The LAPD began counting the number of homeless people sleeping on the streets in February 2006, Smith said, in part to respond to estimates that had put the population downtown as high as 10,000.