‘We'd Notice 25 New Homeless People': LA Council Calls for Count Review

One residential census tract in South Los Angeles went from fewer than 20 unhoused people counted in recent years to 277 in 2026. The figure comes from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the regional agency known as LAHSA, and the council president who lives in that neighborhood says it is not correct, LAist reported. It is not yet clear when a review will be finished, or when any corrected numbers would be published.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on August 26, 2026, to call for a review of this year's point-in-time count. Councilmembers cited possible errors, including an overcount of unhoused people in some parts of the city and an undercount of people staying in shelters elsewhere. After the meeting, LAHSA told the outlet it would launch an investigation.

The count is the annual ledger both City Hall and the federal government read. It shapes where homelessness money goes and how each district's problem gets described for the next year, so a number that is wrong in one neighborhood stays wrong until someone checks it.

What the councilmembers said

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said during the meeting that he believed there were serious problems with the numbers for parts of his district, because they did not match what he and his staff had seen. The count showed homelessness in District 8, which covers much of South Los Angeles, up 128% from 2025 to 2026. The tract he singled out covers the West Park Terrace neighborhood.

“The census tract is in the neighborhood I live in, so I know for a fact that this cannot be the correct number.” — Marqueece Harris-Dawson, at the August 26, 2026 meeting, as reported by LAist

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said this year's count initially left out some people staying in shelters in his district, including sites in the state's Project Homekey program. He attributed the omission to what he described as a glitch in how data was counted. He did not explain during the meeting how the shelters were missed. He said he has had problems with the data nearly every year, that the app LAHSA used had failed in the past, and that the agency overcounted RVs. LAHSA's response to LAist did not address the RV claim, the outlet reported. Councilmember Imelda Padilla said shelter numbers from her district were also missing.

LAHSA's answer

Ahmad Chapman, a spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement that the count produces reliable estimates at the regional level. LAHSA would follow the council's directives and run an internal review through its Risk Management Department, he said.

“Our priority is to identify precise operational or technical issues, report our findings back to the City, and make appropriate changes to our process.” — Ahmad Chapman, LAHSA, in a statement to LAist

LAHSA says the count is reliable at the regional level. The council's vote to review it was unanimous.

The count's record

The point-in-time count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is used to distribute federal grant money. Errors have surfaced before. An LAist investigation found the 2024 count was complicated by policy changes at LAHSA, shifting guidelines and technical problems. A later RAND Corporation report found the count had become less accurate, capturing 68% of the unsheltered population in Skid Row, Venice and Hollywood.

Some residents near the disputed tract told LAist they do believe homelessness has risen since last year. Derrick Johnson said he has lived in an RV near the St. Andrews Recreation Center for six months, after a Section 8 permanent supportive housing voucher expired. He said he spent $4,200 on the vehicle. Vincent Benton, who told the outlet he has no tent or sleeping bag, said he has seen more unhoused people arriving in the area.

No completion date for the review has been set.

Source: laist.com, retrieved August 28, 2026.