The number of homeless students in Los Angeles County is on the rise, with thousands more without housing within a single school year.
The number of students experiencing homelessness in the district increased 28% — to 61,249 in the 2023-24 school year from 47,689 in 2022-23 — according to two studies from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. It’s the biggest increase the region has seen in the past five years, according to researchers.
The jump outpaced California’s homeless student rate, which rose 16% in the same school year to 286,853 from 246,480.
This increase is due to several factors, including a lack of affordable housing and a lack of federal funding for school districts, which disproportionately affects communities of color where students are already struggling economically.
“Lack of housing, economic instability and other obstacles [are] making access to housing even more difficult, even as important temporary funding channels and policies that support access to housing expire,” said Mayra Cazares-Minero, a research analyst at UCLA and one of the authors of the research brief.
Researchers say tracking and addressing homeless youth is also complicated by LA County’s massive education system, which includes 80 school districts and 371 charter schools.
For the record:
1:54 pm April 1, 2026A previous version of this article stated that LAUSD’s enrollment was over 1 million students. They are 392,654.
The Los Angeles Unified School District alone enrolls 392,654 students, making it the second largest school district in the nation.
To gain a better understanding of the system and identify national trends in youth homelessness, researchers analyzed state and county data, as well as patterns in the 10 school districts in LA County with the highest number of students experiencing homelessness.
“The survey data in the brief shows that, over the past five years, the number of students experiencing homelessness has increased among all races and ethnicities – except for Filipino students,” the study authors wrote.
Latino and Black students are also at higher risk of homelessness in Los Angeles County, according to researchers.
About 76% of the district’s students experiencing homelessness were Latino in the 2023-24 school year, compared to 72% statewide. Black students made up another 12% of the district’s total for the same year, the data showed.
Researchers found that Latino students faced many challenges, including problems with immigration, English proficiency and unstable housing related to their parents’ employment status.
In the 2023-24 school year, immigrant students accounted for 2.7% of California’s homeless students — double the national share among homeless students who reported the previous year, according to the study.
“These statistics are consistent with finding out that [Latino] students experience homelessness equally,” the study reads in part. “Research consistently emphasizes that factors such as immigration status, English language proficiency, employment, and socioeconomic status are strongly related to homelessness rates in [Latino] California families.”
A brief survey report identified 10 school districts in the county with the highest rates of homeless students, with Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District and Wilson School District being the top two.
Three of the top five school districts with the highest number of homeless students are in the San Gabriel Valley.
“The concentration of homeless students in certain districts – especially in Mpumalanga and the San Gabriel Valley – suggests that homelessness is not evenly distributed throughout Los Angeles County and is caused by local factors such as housing costs, social exclusion, and job vacancies,” Joseph Bishop, executive director and founder of the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools, said in a written statement.
In one study, researchers interviewed school-based homeless coordinators — staff members tasked with supporting homeless youth — and district officials in five school districts to examine how they identify and support students and their families experiencing homelessness.
Adriana Jaramillo Castillo, a research analyst at the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools and one of the study’s authors, said schools serve as a hub for services and resources for students.
“Homeless school liaisons play an important role in connecting families with help, ensuring shelters, and guiding policy needs,” he wrote in the study. “However, their challenges are compounded by under-resourced systems, changing administrative priorities, and persistent inequities in access and support, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Researchers have found that families often avoid telling school officials that they are experiencing homelessness because of stigma and fear for the children’s well-being or immigration enforcement. Some families have a short definition of what it means to be homeless. Some of those families, researchers say, are “doubles,” sharing a home with relatives or other families. Researchers said that leads to confusion about eligibility.
Integrated student data systems and platforms hinder that verification process, while limited federal funding forces many districts to rely on ad hoc funding and donations.
Researchers have found that homeless liaisons often have to check a patchwork of systems to ensure a student’s eligibility and status.
The study recommends that school districts take a proactive approach to identifying students and their families experiencing homelessness and improve collaboration by integrating data systems, among other measures.
“To a large extent, it is unclear how California — or the rest of the country — will continue to support students experiencing homelessness, especially as the numbers continue to rise while funding and focus decrease,” Bishop said. “It is imperative that California and Los Angeles County take immediate, systematic action to address youth homelessness.”
