LA county reports first drop in deaths of unhoused people in a decade

A woman is administered a shot to help treat substance use disorder on 23 February in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

More than 2,200 unhoused people died in Los Angeles in 2024, marking the first time in a decade that the homeless mortality rate decreased in the nation’s most populous county, public health officials announced on Tuesday.

The signs of progress come as the county has also reported decreases in the overall unhoused population in a region that has long struggled with a severe affordable housing shortage and one of the worst street homelessness crises in the US.