More ‘rough sleepers’ are on the streets of Hollywood as the city clears out tents, bringing new challenges

The two women, mother and daughter, were sitting on mattresses covering part of the street on the shady side of Western Avenue, still shivering from the morning chill.

As volunteer Joan Howard approached, her goal was to count the two women and continue walking. He had a census tract that he had to collect on foot before 9 am

Howard was involved in a number of homeless counts conducted by the non-profit organization Hollywood 4WRD. About 60 volunteers with clipboards spread out in Hollywood on Tuesday morning to count all the tents, makeshift shelters, campers and apparently homeless people. Their job was to observe and record, not to engage.

But at that time, disagreements started. Howard, a longtime Food on Foot volunteer, knelt down, held the daughter’s hand and listened to their story.

After their employment in North Carolina was rejected, the daughter said, they came with her husband and brother to Los Angeles to live with a relative, but they were denied. The daughter, who was pregnant, and the mother, who had a very swollen ankle, both needed medical help but did not know how to get help. Their bags were stolen, leaving them unaccounted for.

Because of the count, Howard had to move forward. But the women’s problem provided a stark example of why Hollywood 4WRD wants to collect its data to add to the homeless population.

Keeping track of how many guys are sleeping outside without a tent or car to shelter them has become a big problem for the organization. As the city’s clean-up and removal programs have reduced the number of prominent campsites on the streets of Hollywood, the number of people sleeping rough is increasing.

“The change in Hollywood is profound,” said Louis Abramson, lead author of the Rand Corp. project. who is a Hollywood figure model.

Starting in 2021, Rand’s LA LEADS project has conducted a bimonthly survey of homelessness in Hollywood, Venice and Skid Row, drawing on data not seen in an annual countywide survey by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Rand’s funding is now ending, possibly leaving Hollywood organizations without the good news they received from Rand.

“We were giving them information that they thought was important and that they wanted to replicate on their own using the best methods we could give them,” said Abramson.

Volunteers from various homeless organizations receive their assignments while participating in the Hollywood 4WRD Homeless Census in Hollywood on May 19, 2026.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

In its latest report released on Thursday, Rand found that homelessness has increased in Hollywood after a sharp decline in 2024, but that the pattern of those left to live continues to change.

It found that 52% are “rough sleepers,” 38% shelter in cars and only 9% have tents.

There are a total of 650 people, a decrease of 300 in 2024, with a few 400 tents but another 90 sleeping rough or in cars.

A previous report by LA LEADS found more people in Hollywood than the official count and concluded that LAHSA was missing many sleepers.

The change has implications for homeless policy.

“Moving from camping to rough sleeping will hamper strategies to address the homelessness of the homeless,” says a new report.

Camp settlement programs, such as Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe that provided shelter to people living in tents, will have few to operate.

People sleeping in cars and on random streets are very difficult for case workers to find and hand over.

Volunteers Kim Robinson, left, and Joan Howard, both with Food on Foot, discuss where they will go first while working with Hollywood 4WRD to count the homeless.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Service providers will face more pressure and “contact teams will shrink as customers become more geographically dispersed and harder to find,” it said.

As a volunteer at the LAHSA census in January, Hollywood 4WRD Executive Director Brittney Weissman had her own concerns, especially about people sleeping in cars.

Most cars are full of stuff, but does that mean they live in it?

Weissman’s three-member team struggled with this question.

“We were confused or unclear,” he said. “We made a team decision to count the car or not.”

He thought that they may have been underplaying, which led to their low value. He wondered how other teams handled it.

“There might be a level of consistency,” he thought.

The experience led Weissman to design the Hollywood 4WRD calculator.

As the organization that coordinates about 50 homeless services agencies, it will use the data to help them adjust their outreach and communication strategies.

“We want to build our own data to inform our efforts as a team in Hollywood,” Weissman said.

Tuesday’s count included volunteers from 12 organizations. Abramson, in addition to his work at Rand is the chairman of the board of SELAH, a coalition of Hollywood and Northeast LA homeless, uses Rand’s method to generate estimates with raw statistics.

To limit measurement error, two groups of people were instructed to make decisions independently, so that each of the 30 tracts in the Hollywood Census was, in fact, counted twice. The two figures are then compared for agreement. Any major discrepancies will be resolved by recounting the tract.

Volunteer Joan Howard, left, with Food on Foot, talks to Jose Cabrera as he works with Hollywood 4WRD to count the homeless in Hollywood on May 19, 2026.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

A preliminary analysis shows a follow-up to the estimates in the January LA LEADS survey with the minimum height of tents from 60 to 74, Weissman said.

The final results will be declared on Wednesday.

Howard, who has been making the rounds in Hollywood for two decades, doubted that everyone was counted that day. In his experience, many people pack their tents in shelters and lock their cars early in the morning to go somewhere for breakfast or work.

Even cars parked on the street that look clean can be a shelter for someone, he says.

“If I can get to midnight, I’ll know for sure,” he said.

But that was not his main concern. Howard didn’t decide to bring the two women from North Carolina together and move on.

“I didn’t leave them, I promise,” he said in a phone interview the next day. “I went back.”

He told them about the Hub at the Hollywood Adventist Church where they could go to get food, showers and help from caseworkers.

He also invited them to his organization, Food on Foot where every Sunday, UCLA provides medical and social services and food.

“It would be great if they could go and seek help because they need it,” she said.