The 2022 Point In Time Count Shows A Continued Increase In Homelessness, Highlighting The Need For More Housing In Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES – Today’s release of the Point In Time homelessness count numbers shows a 4.1% increase in homelessness in Los Angeles County from 2020. Despite the city and county’s efforts to prevent homelessness and help homeless people transition into housing—last year, LAHSA placed more than 21,000 people in homes—the homeless population continues to grow because the city is not building enough housing to keep up with job and population growth.
While popular narratives misleadingly pin the blame for homelessness on drug addiction and mental illness, the data is clear: Los Angeles has a homelessness crisis primarily because housing is unaffordable, and housing is unaffordable because we simply do not have enough of it. Thanks to restrictive zoning laws, California has been under-building housing for 50 years while adding millions of high-paying jobs. As a result, California is 49th in the nation for housing units per capita and Los Angeles is the second-least affordable city in the country, with the worst household overcrowding.
“Building more housing is the only solution to our linked homelessness and housing affordability crises. This is why we are calling on Governor Newsom to sign AB 2011, which streamlines 100% affordable housing projects throughout California, as well as other bills like AB 2097 that make it feasible to build inexpensive new housing near transit and jobs by eliminating costly minimum parking mandates,” said Abundant Housing executive director Leonora Camner.
Abundant Housing LA is a nonprofit pro-housing advocacy organization working to help solve Southern California’s housing crisis. We support reforms to legalize more homes, make homes easier to build, increase funding for affordable housing, and protect tenants, which are all needed to make housing more affordable, improve access to jobs and transit, promote greater environmental sustainability, and advance racial and economic equity. As a community organization, in order to maintain our independence, we do not accept financial support from housing developers or their consultants.
