For General Inquiries: info@everyoneinla.org
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Have questions about homelessness in L.A.?
We’ve got answers.

How can I access services?

Start with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s help page. You can also contact one of these service providers in your community:

West L.A.
South L.A.
East L.A.
San Fernando Valley
San Gabriel Valley
Long Beach
South Bay
Central L.A.
Hollywood
Antelope Valley

We hope this helps. Even with more resources than ever before, it can be frustrating to get support and housing. We’re working every day to create more housing and better access to these services.

You can request outreach services via the LA Homeless Outreach Portal (LA-HOP) at www.la-hop.org. LA-HOP is designed to connect people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County with outreach teams.

It may also be helpful to offer basic necessities, such as food and water, or supplies like blankets or toothbrushes if you are able.

How can I get involved?

First thing’s first: Sign up for our email list. We’ll keep you informed of everything we’re doing in your community and around the county.

Then check out our calendar and sign up for an event. We have events each month, including workshops, community calls, and storytelling events.

If you’re not sure where to get started, please reach out to our Everyone In organizing team. They have an amazing job: helping people like you make change in your communities.

That’s easy. Just sign up on our Long Beach page. A member of our organizing team will shoot you an email with news and next steps.

We’re building a community of advocates across L.A. and host events from workshops to community calls to storytelling events. We love the Everyone In community and we would love for you to be a part of it. All are welcome regardless of experience, background, or housing status.

Take a look at our calendar for upcoming events. Join the team and we’ll send you alerts about new opportunities to get involved.

We know that most people are on our side and want real solutions to homelessness. Of course there’s a lot of misinformation about homelessness, and even people who have the best intentions might be misinformed.

Let them know we have a fact-based plan to end homelessness in L.A. based on strategies that eliminated homelessness in other cities. This plan is already showing results: every day, 133 people across L.A. County move from homelessness into housing.

After decades of neglect, we’re finally investing in the solutions that work. But we need to do a lot more, and all of our neighbors need to speak up and get more involved.

If you’re interested in more information about how to talk to your neighbors about homelessness, sign up for an an event with us.

What are people doing to end homelessness?

Everyone In is a diverse coalition of neighbors working to end L.A. County’s housing and homelessness crisis through collective action.

Our mission is to make every corner of L.A. County stronger by celebrating those who are making a difference in our communities and demanding elected officials fight for plans that benefit everyone.

We are working together to ensure that everyone in Los Angeles has a safe, stable place to live.

The plan to end homelessness starts with creating more supportive and affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of falling into homelessness. In the last three years, L.A. has put more than 8,000 units of this kind of housing into the pipeline.

That’s just step one. You can read a lot more about the plan to end homelessness here.

L.A. County has dramatically increased the number and scale of services available to people experiencing homelessness. There’s too much to fit here, but a few examples include counseling for substance use disorder, mental health care, medical care, rent subsidies, outreach and case management, and immediate housing.

Voters in Los Angeles passed two significant ballot measures in 2016 and 2017 to invest in housing and services. Together they will generate an estimated $5 billion in funding over a 10 year period, which means we have seven years left.

Prop. HHH has jumpstarted construction on more than 8,000 units of supportive and affordable housing.

Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax increase, is the first dedicated funding source for homeless services that L.A. has ever had. Think about that. Measure H funds pay for everything from mental health care to homeless outreach. Homelessness would be significantly worse without these two sources of funding.

Voters in Los Angeles passed two significant ballot measures in 2016 and 2017 to invest in housing and services. Together they will generate an estimated $5 billion in funding over a 10 year period, which means we have seven years left.

Prop. HHH has jumpstarted construction on more than 8,000 units of supportive and affordable housing.

Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax increase, is the first dedicated funding for homeless services that L.A. has ever had. Think about that. Measure H funds pay for everything from mental health care to homeless outreach. Homelessness would be significantly worse without these two sources of funding.

Housing is being created all over L.A. County, although currently most of it is concentrated in the city of Los Angeles. You can get a bird’s eye view on our map page.

Although we’re encouraged to see more housing for people experiencing homelessness in development, we need so much more.

Questions about solutions

Measure H is a quarter-cent sales tax increase in the county of Los Angeles that was passed by an overwhelming majority of voters in 2017. It created the first dedicated funding in L.A. for homeless services and short-term housing, raising roughly $350 million a year.

Thanks in large part to the services provided by Measure H, which include mental health care and substance use counseling, roughly 133 people move from homelessness into housing every single day.

Voters will need to decide whether to allow H to expire or continue funding services that have already moved tens of thousands of people off the streets.

Prop. HHH is a 2016 bond measure in the city of Los Angeles that raised more than a billion dollars for the creation of supportive and affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness.

It sparked the investment necessary to create more than 8,000 permanent homes. HHH money has also been used to identify innovative ways to reduce the cost and time it takes to build supportive housing.

Affordable housing units rent for less than the market rate and are reserved for people who earn less than average income.

Most people experiencing homelessness need a place they can afford, and we don’t have enough of those options. Creating affordable housing is a guaranteed way to bring people off the streets while preventing the kind of trauma and economic struggles that could keep them there.

Learn more here.

Supportive housing is permanent, affordable housing that’s paired with on-site services, like mental health care, job training, or substance use counseling. People pay 30% of their income to live in supportive housing and have access to services.

It’s for especially vulnerable people, like those with disabilities or survivors of trauma, who otherwise have difficulty staying in stable housing. Supportive housing is remarkably effective: More than 90 percent of residents stay housed and have improved health, financial stability, and self-sufficiency. Simply put, supportive housing is the best way to end the most persistent and acute homelessness.

Learn more here.

You may not realize this, but you probably already have affordable housing in your neighborhood. Check out our map to see.

These are “normal” apartments, just reserved for people who make less than average income—which is a lot of us.

People can barely afford to live in most communities across L.A. and they are experiencing homelessness all over L.A. County, and that’s why we need solutions everywhere. All of our neighborhoods are connected to one another, and it’s not fair or effective to ask one neighborhood to make up for a lack of compassion in another one.

Immediate housing is a broad term that covers housing that is temporary, such as bridge housing and shelters.

These facilities are designed to provide safety and stability so the people staying there can access services and secure permanent homes. Immediate housing does not end homelessness, but it’s an important part of the larger effort to support the many people sleeping outside with nowhere to go, temporary or otherwise.

Bridge housing, in particular, features on-site services and case management, and L.A. has made significant investments to increase the supply of these beds.

There remains a critical shortage, but some progress is being made. In 2018-2019, L.A. added more than 1,800 immediate housing beds.

Rapid rehousing is a program that provides rent vouchers to people in danger of falling into homelessness. They might receive enough for a security deposit and then something on the order of three-to-six months of support. The idea is to step in and stop homelessness before it happens and to provide support long enough to get folks on their own two feet.

It is much more cost-effective to prevent homelessness through programs like rapid rehousing than it is to wait until after someone loses their home.

Voter approved funding for rapid rehousing has kept thousands of Angelenos from experiencing homelessness since 2017. There are currently about 11,000 people in the rapid rehousing program.

It’s actually much cheaper over the long run than building temporary housing or leaving people on the streets. Sometimes there are legal or construction fees that can drive up the cost. The fact that developers of supportive housing need to apply to many levels of government and to the private market to collect enough funding doesn’t help, either. But, overall, supportive housing saves taxpayers money when compared to the costs of treating people while they live outside.

There are many hurdles to jump over in order to build housing, from funding to regulation. Fortunately, the California State Legislature recently changed the rules to make it a little easier and faster to build supportive and affordable housing in L.A.

Some housing developers and service providers are also finding innovative ways (like transforming shipping containers into modular housing) to speed up construction further.

And we can do things like convert old disused motels into housing for people experiencing homelessness that may take even less time.

We are building more immediate housing, including shelters and bridge housing. From 2018 to 2019, L.A. County added more than 1,800 beds and 25% more people were able to secure immediate housing. We still need to do more.

We’re also building permanent housing because temporary housing beds, while desperately needed, do not end homelessness.

It’s true that there are a lot more people currently experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness than there are units of housing available. That’s why we’re so focused on preserving the housing we have and creating more. It’s also why we’re proud that we’ve collectively approved more supportive housing in the last 3 years than in the previous 30 in the city of Los Angeles.

These services include mental health care, rapid rehousing, and substance use counseling.

For people who experience chronic homelessness–meaning they are frequently without a safe and stable home or they have been without one for a very long time–the answer is supportive housing. About a quarter of people experiencing homelessness fall into this category. Supportive housing comes with services on-site and is 90% effective at ending homelessness.

The root cause of our homelessness crisis is a severe lack of housing that most working Angelenos can afford. Many people experiencing homelessness also have jobs. Regardless, every person needs a safe and stable home before they can begin to fully address illnesses or disabilities.

For some, job training can be a significant step on the path back to stability and permanent housing, but as rents go up across the region and wages don’t keep pace, more and more working people will fall into homelessness and struggle to get back into stable housing.

For those who do struggle with substance use or other chronic disorders, housing is the first necessary step on the path to getting better. It is much easier for people to achieve stability and good health without simultaneously contending with the trauma of homelessness.

For this reason, the “housing first” model has become the gold standard of ending homelessness, and has been shown to work in study after study. Everyone needs a home and, besides, making people reach benchmarks before they qualify for housing doesn’t work.

Facts about homelessness

At the time of the most recent homeless count, in January 2019, 58,936 people were experiencing homelessness in L.A. County—up 12% from the previous year. The results from the January 2020 count will be released later this year.

L.A. has the largest unsheltered homeless population in the United States (44,214) and it’s no coincidence that we also have one of the worst housing crises in the country. We are also doing more to address our crisis than ever before, and that 12% increase, while extremely frustrating, was much lower than the increase seen in our neighboring counties.

The inflow of people falling into homelessness is moving at a faster rate that the outflow of those moving to housing stability.

Thanks to voter-approved investments in housing and services, 133 people move from homelessness into housing every day. The problem is that another 150 lose their homes. L.A. is one of the most rent-burdened places in the U.S. 600,000 people here spend 90% of their income on rent and are one crisis away from losing their homes.

We need to increase our support for the solutions that work so we can flip that ratio. We know how to end homelessness—we prove it 133 times a day. Now we need to do more.

The overwhelming majority of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles have lived here for more than 10 years, and 80% lived in California when they lost their homes.

Our housing and homelessness crisis has nothing to do with the weather. We’re seeing homelessness go up everywhere around the country, not just in places with warmer weather, because housing is becoming less affordable everywhere. The places with the most homelessness are places where housing is getting more and more expensive, like L.A., New York, and San Francisco.

Warm weather does not offer comfort or protection. More unhoused people die of hypothermia (exposure to cold) in L.A. than in New York City.

Most people experiencing homelessness (71% according to the latest homeless count) do not report mental health needs or substance use disorders. In L.A., our homeless crisis is primarily caused by economic factors and a lack of housing working people can afford.

Regardless, everyone needs a safe, stable home and whatever help and support they need to get to that place.

People experiencing homelessness and living with mental illness face unique challenges, and this is why L.A. voters decided overwhelmingly to fund new services, including mental health care, and create more supportive housing where those services are offered. We must do more.

There is no such thing as someone who does not want housing. People live outside because there is not enough housing within reach and not enough safe immediate housing beds, or because years of trauma and instability have taken their toll and so it will take more time to help that person come back indoors.

Thanks to the Coordinated Entry System (CES), tens of thousands of people have been matched to housing. Every day, 133 people move from homelessness into permanent homes. But there are not enough places for everyone who needs one.

There are currently 31,000 people who have been assessed and are waiting for a housing resource. People wouldn’t participate in this lengthy and very personal interviewing process if they didn’t want to find housing.

The biggest health concern is for people experiencing homelessness themselves, who are at increased risk of developing chronic and deadly illnesses due to the harsh conditions of living outside, constant stress, and lack of access to medical care and basic sanitary needs like toilets.

For many people, homelessness can be a death sentence. 918 people died last year while experiencing homelessness. Meanwhile, there is no record of any housed person dying or contracting an illness due to proximity to encampments or individual people experiencing homelessness. People have made claims otherwise, driven by fear and prejudice, but it has never actually happened.

We need to focus on the facts in order to have solutions, and the best solutions to the health risks that arise from experiencing homelessness are more services. Following an increase in voter-approved funding, there are now more trained outreach workers, more basic facilities like showers, bathrooms, and restrooms near encampments, and more services like health care available. But we need to do much more.