The overall number of people living on the streets in three high-profile Los Angeles neighborhoods held steady in 2025, but the way those people sleep has shifted in a troubling direction — with rough sleeping reaching its highest level in four years of monitoring, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation.
The findings come from RAND’s Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey, known as LA LEADS, which tracked unsheltered homelessness in Hollywood, Skid Row and Venice from January 2025 through January 2026. The study concluded that the combined unsheltered population in those neighborhoods was statistically unchanged from a year earlier, but rough sleeping — defined as living completely without a tent, makeshift shelter or vehicle — rose 20%, adding roughly 250 people to that most-exposed category.
By January 2026, 44% of all unsheltered people in the study area were sleeping rough, up from 30% in 2021-22 when the study began…