Hollywood’s shift – A new homeless count in Hollywood on May 19, 2026 found more people sleeping rough after city cleanup efforts reduced prominent encampments—shifting shelter needs from tents to vehicles and sidewalk living. Volunteers say the change makes outreach harder, and
On a shady stretch of Western Avenue, two people sat on a mattress covering half the sidewalk as the morning chill lingered. Joan Howard, a longtime outreach volunteer with Food on Foot, knelt anyway.
Her assignment that Tuesday morning—May 19, 2026—was straightforward: tally the two women and keep moving. She was one of roughly 60 volunteers with clipboards participating in a homeless count organized by the nonprofit Hollywood 4WRD. and the rules were clear. They were there to observe and record, not engage.
But the women’s situation wouldn’t fit into a checkbox. The daughter. who is pregnant. told Howard that after their rental in North Carolina was condemned. she and her husband and brother came to Los Angeles to live with a relative—only to be rebuffed. She said they needed medical attention: the mother was suffering severe ankle swelling. and they had no idea how to get help. Howard was told their wallets were stolen, leaving them without identification.
For the count, Howard had to move on. Still, she took the daughter’s hand and listened.
The episode became a vivid example of what Hollywood 4WRD is trying to capture as the city reduces prominent encampments—an approach the nonprofit says is changing where people sleep and how hard they can be to reach. Hollywood 4WRD wants its own information to supplement the official homeless count. especially for people sleeping outdoors without tents or vehicles.
As the city’s cleaning and removal programs have reduced visible encampments on Hollywood’s streets. the number of people sleeping rough is on the rise. Hollywood 4WRD says. Louis Abramson, the lead author of a Rand Corp. project that has been used as the model for the Hollywood count, described the change as profound.
Since 2021. Rand’s LA LEADS project has surveyed homelessness in Hollywood. Venice and Skid Row every two months. producing insights that differ from the once-a-year countywide survey conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. But Rand’s funding is running out. potentially leaving Hollywood organizations without the kind of fine-grained data they’ve been receiving.
Abramson said Rand was “providing them with data they thought was valuable that they want to replicate on their own,” using best practices the project could pass along.
In Rand’s final report released Thursday. homelessness was found to have leveled off in Hollywood after a steep decline in 2024. The report also said the way people remaining are living has continued to change. It found 52% were “rough sleepers,” 38% were sheltered in vehicles, and only 9% had tents.
The overall total of 650 people was down 300 from the count of 2024. That decline came alongside 400 fewer tents but 90 more people sleeping rough or in vehicles.
The shift matters, the report warned, because policy and outreach strategies were built around tent-dwelling. It said the change away from tent-dwelling toward rough sleeping will “impede strategies to resolve unsheltered homelessness.” Encampment resolution programs—such as Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe. which offered shelter to tent dwellers—will have fewer people to serve. People sleeping in vehicles and on random sidewalks are also harder for caseworkers to find and support.
Service providers, the report said, are likely to face more stress as outreach teams become less efficient—because clients become more geographically diffuse and harder to locate.
Even the question of what counts as homelessness can break down in the field.
Brittney Weissman. the Hollywood 4WRD executive director. said her concerns during a LAHSA count in January included the uncertainty around people sleeping in vehicles. She described an experience in which her three-member team struggled with the basic question: many cars are stuffed with belongings. but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re being lived in.
“We were confused or unclear,” Weissman said. She said her team made a group decision on whether to count a vehicle or not, and she worried they might have been too conservative—leading to an undercount.
“There is likely to be a level of inconsistency,” she said, and the uncertainty prompted Weissman to organize Hollywood 4WRD’s own count.
The organization coordinates for about 50 homeless services agencies, and it plans to use the data to help adjust outreach and engagement strategies. “We want to create data for ourselves to inform our efforts as a collective in Holllywood,” Weissman said.
On Tuesday, the count drew volunteers from 12 organizations. Abramson—who also chairs SELAH, a Hollywood and Northeast L.A. homeless coalition—used Rand’s methodology to produce estimates from raw tallies.
To limit measurement error, the count relied on two-person teams making decisions independently. Each of Hollywood’s 30 census tracts, in effect, would be counted twice. The two tallies were compared for consistency, and large discrepancies would be resolved by recounting the tract.
Weissman said a preliminary analysis showed the estimates tracking with LA LEADS’ January survey, with a slight uptick in tents from 60 to 74. Final results are set to be announced on Wednesday.
Even with the methodology, some volunteers questioned whether everyone could be found.
Howard, who has been doing street outreach in Hollywood for two decades, doubted that all people were counted that day. She has seen tents packed into hiding places and cars locked early in the morning to head out for breakfast or work.
Even cars parked on the street that appear clean, she said, can still be someone’s shelter.
“If I could come around midnight, then I could really figure it out,” she said.
Still, Howard’s most urgent concern wasn’t the tally itself. She wasn’t able to treat the North Carolina women’s situation as something she could record and then leave behind.
“I didn’t leave them, I promise you,” Howard said the next day in a phone interview. “I went back.”
She told them about the Hub at the Hollywood Adventist Church, where they could go for food, showers, and help from caseworkers. She also invited them to Food on Foot, where every other Sunday UCLA provides medical and social services along with a meal.
“It would be absolutely wonderful if they could go and get some help because they need it,” Howard said.
Hollywood homeless count Hollywood 4WRD Food on Foot Rand LA LEADS Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Mayor Karen Bass Inside Safe rough sleepers tents vehicles unsheltered homelessness