Homelessness decreased in Los Angeles for the first time in six years, the LA Homeless Services Authority reported Friday.

Homelessness in LA County declined by 0.275%, or about 200 people, to 75,312 during the organization’s annual point-in-time count conducted in January.

It was down 2.2% in the city of Los Angeles to 45,252.

“Evidence suggests that our aligned approach and coordinated efforts to address unsheltered street homelessness are having an impact,” LAHSA Executive Director Va Lecia Adams Kellum said during a press conference that revealed the latest homelessness figures.

Each year, LAHSA performs the largest annual point-in-time count in the United States as required by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, which reviews and validates the data. Results from the 2024 count are the first time since 2017 that homelessness has decreased in LA. The 2023 count found homelessness increased 9% in LA County to an estimated 75,518 people and had risen 10% in the city of LA to an estimated 46,260 people.

Latinos made up the largest percentage of homeless individuals (43%), followed by Black people (31%) and whites (29%).

The LA count divides homeless individuals into those who are sheltered and unsheltered. The count saw a 5.1% decrease in unsheltered, or street, homelessness compared with last year and a 12.7% increase in sheltered homelessness.

The percentage of unsheltered homeless who are youth fell to 1.8% in 2024 from 3% in 2023, while the percentage of unsheltered adults fell to 67.7% this year compared with 70% in 2023.

LAHSA said 2024 has seen a 47% increase in people experiencing street homelessness being moved into interim housing and a 25% increase in homeless individuals moving from interim housing into permanent housing.

The point in time count found that fewer homeless people were living in cars, vans, tents and makeshift shelters, but more people were living in RVs.

Despite improvements in overall numbers of homelessness, more people are becoming homeless than are being housed.

In 2023, for every 100 people who exited homelessness, another 120 entered into homelessness, according to LAHSA.

“To prevent homelessness, the LA region must reverse decades of under building and affordable housing, help more people achieve economic stability and address the shrinking social safety net,” Adams Kellum said. “Our partners at city and county are taking steps to make that happen, but all communities across the region must come together and focus their collective efforts on proven solutions to truly turn the corner.”

California is home to 30% of the country’s unsheltered population. More than 171,000 people in the state experience homelessness daily, according to a report from the University of California, San Francisco released last year. It found people experiencing homelessness in California are more likely to be burdened with high housing costs, mental health problems and addiction issues.

In June, the median monthly rent in Los Angeles is $2,795 — $650 more than the national median, according to Zillow.

LAHSA said Friday that 54% of people in LA who had been homeless for less than a year said economic hardship was the primary reason.

 “We have changed the trajectory of this crisis and have moved LA in a new direction,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement following the homeless count results. “This is not the end, it is the beginning — and we will build on this progress together.”

Bass became mayor of LA in December 2022 and has made the city’s homelessness crisis the focal point of her administration, issuing an emergency declaration on homelessness and an executive order to accelerate the development of affordable housing in the city.

Her budget proposal for the coming fiscal year includes $950 million for homeless programs, including $185 million for Inside Safe, her program to eliminate street encampments by promoting long-term housing stability and mental health and substance abuse treatment for people experiencing homelessness.

LA's homelessness numbers came out the same day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can enforce bans on homeless people who sleep outside.

“We do not agree with criminalizing homelessness,” Adams Kellum said. “The result of this year’s homeless count strongly supports our best practices approach that aligns all levels of government and our providers around saving lives by resolving encampments and bringing people indoors. We believe in housing and services, not arrests.”