Homeless count calculated for Chronicle area

HOMELESS COUNT CENSUS TRACTS from Jan. 25, 2024, with overlays of Larchmont Chronicle circulation area (blue line) and Greater Wilshire (green shading) and Mid City West (red shading) neighborhood councils. “Area A” had a total of approximately 51 percent of the unsheltered people in all these census tracts that evening, and “Area B” had approximately 17 percent.
Ever since the 2024 homeless count was conducted in the Greater Wilshire community on the evening of Jan. 25, 2024, the Larchmont Chronicle has been working to find out how our area fared. After many months of inquiring, we obtained the raw, point-in-time census data from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). We overlaid the relevant census tracts on the geographic area where we distribute the paper each month. The distribution area boundaries are from Melrose Avenue and Beverly Boulevard to Olympic Boulevard and from Fairfax to Western avenues, approximately six square miles.
Within that area, the January 25 evening visual tally showed the number of unsheltered persons to be approximately 86. The data also revealed there were 36 tents plus 13 cars, 31 vans, 15 recreational vehicles (a total of 59 vehicles) and appearing to house people. Additionally, the surveyors recorded 10 other makeshift shelters. LAHSA representatives do not endeavor to enter any of these individual spaces. Rather, LAHSA has created a multiplier of 1.7 people per space based upon careful research over the years. Utilizing that multiplier — with our area’s total of 105 tent, car, van, RV, and makeshift shelter spaces — results in an estimate of 179 occupants of those spaces. Add that to 86 individuals counted, and the Larchmont Chronicle distribution area appears to have had approximately 265 unsheltered homeless people the evening of Jan. 25, 2024.
Within the Chronicle’s circulation area, the majority of the homeless individuals and tents and vehicles counted were in the census tracts that extended north across the Melrose Avenue boundary and west of La Brea Avenue.
Approximately 50 percent of the homeless people counted that night were in the area west of La Brea Avenue with about 44 percent of the tents and vehicles also being west of La Brea. Using the LAHSA multiplier, approximately 135 of the 265 unsheltered people (51 percent) were in that area (“Area A” on the accompanying map).
Approximately nine percent of the counted people and 21 percent of the tents and vehicles were in our distribution area’s upper-right corner, north of Beverly Boulevard and east of Wilton Place. Utilizing LAHSA’s multiplier, approximately 17 percent of the total counted were in that area (“Area B” on the accompanying map).
That leaves approximately 32 percent of the tallied and estimated unsheltered people that night in the area inside census tract boundaries of, on the north, Willoughby Avenue, Seward Street, Melrose Avenue, then extending south and east on Wilton Place and Beverly Boulevard to Western Avenue, south to Country Club Drive and then east along Olympic Boulevard and north on La Brea Avenue to Willoughby.
That generally describes 14 of the 15 Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council communities: Melrose Neighborhood, Hancock Park, Larchmont Village Neighborhood, Windsor Square, Ridgewood Wilton, St. Andrews Square, We-Wil, Country Club Heights, Wilshire Park, Windsor Village, Fremont Place, Brookside, Sycamore Square and La Brea Hancock.
The LAHSA counts gathered in January were released on June 28. LAHSA conducts the biggest point-in-time survey in the United States.
LAHSA notes that the number of unhoused in the city dropped by 2.2 percent.
Category: News