Last Friday, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LASHA) completed its three-night volunteer portion of the 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, capturing 99% of the volunteer-recorded data digitally.

“Over the last three nights, we saw thousands of people all over L.A. County come together to count their unhoused neighbors. I was inspired by the dedication of our community to addressing homelessness,” said Gita O’Neill, interim CEO of LAHSA. “On behalf of the entire team at LAHSA, I want to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone who came out to help us this week.”

More than 5,000 volunteers signed up for the effort over the three nights, exceeding its initial volunteer ask by approximately 19%.

The strong volunteer response and more efficient deployment strategies led to approximately half as many make-up tracts in 2025, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Since January 2023, LASHA collected data from its volunteers through the use of a digital app, ArcGIS QuickCapture, a location-enabled mobile application, in order to complete its count,  according to Esri.

LASHA uses ArcGIS QuickCapture to conduct the largest Point-in-Time (PIT) count in the nation, as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires a biennial PIT of people experiencing homelessness, according to Esri.

This year’s volunteers reported a smoother counting app experience, with no major technical issues across the three nights, and LASHA staff available to address any individual challenges that arose.

With LASHA’s enhancements in place, the organization aimed to improve the volunteer experience and ensure that the Count ran smoothly to reduce the number of make-up counts by about 36%, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Outreach teams from across L.A. County helped conduct the make-up counts over the next few days.

LASHA is expected to provide its Homeless Count data to its partners at the University of Southern California in the coming weeks.

USC is also expected to combine the unsheltered count data with the sheltered count and youth count to calculate the Homeless Count estimate.

LASHA plans to release the results of its 2026 Homeless Count in late spring or early summer of this year.

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