LAHSA Announces the Dates for the 2022 Homeless Count

The 2022 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count will take place Jan. 25 to 27, 2022. 

Last year, the Count’s main component – the unsheltered street count – could not be conducted because the thousands of volunteers needed to cover Los Angeles County could not be gathered safely. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is taking measures to ensure volunteers can count safely with minimal contact.  

Since 2016, the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, overseen by LAHSA, has conducted an unsheltered street count annually in order to better understand homelessness across the county. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that a count be conducted every other year. Given the size of Los Angeles County, volunteers will spend three nights counting in different parts of the region: 

Jan. 25: San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys

Jan. 26: West Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles, & the South Bay

Jan. 27: Antelope Valley, Metro Los Angeles, and South Los Angeles

The 2021 Housing Inventory Count and Shelter Count, two portions of this year’s count that could be conducted safely, found that the LA region’s shelter capacity on any given night was 24,616 beds, a 57% increase over the last three years. LAHSA also reported 33,592 permanent housing options, an increase of 16% over the same time period. 

In 2020, the last time the count could safely be conducted, 66,436 people were found to be living on the street in tents, makeshift dwellings, and vehicles. 

LAHSA continues to seek volunteers to count in January. Those interested can visit

Theycountwillyou.org for more information and to register. 

Homeless count deployment sites will utilize different COVID-19 precautions, including outdoor distribution of materials, requiring all volunteers and staff to wear masks, directing participants to maintain social distance, and making personal protective equipment or PPE accessible to all participants. 

While volunteers are encouraged to register as teams to avoid unnecessary exposure to one another, LAHSA is also encouraging volunteers to be vaccinated and/or show negative test results in case they do intend to work with other volunteers outside their respective bubbles. 

Details: For updates on safety guidelines, visit www.theycountwillyou.org