This May 21, 2020, file photo shows a homeless encampment on Beaudry Avenue as traffic moves along Interstate 110 below during the coronavirus outbreak, in downtown Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill,File) 
A lone tent getting a small amount of shade (KTLA) 
Los Angeles financial district skyscrapers are seen behind a tent encampment on Sep. 23, 2015, in downtown Los Angeles. (Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) 
A person’s belongings piled up across of the Department of Water and Power building in Los Angeles (KTLA) 
A row of tents under a bridge in Los Angeles (KTLA) 
A homeless encampment is seen in downtown Los Angeles on May 30, 2019. (Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images) 
In this June 8, 2021, file photo, a jogger walks past a homeless encampment in the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) 
People ride their bikes past a homeless encampment set up along the boardwalk in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) 
A trashed punching bag is left at a homeless encampment on the side of the CA-101 highway in Echo Park neighborhood in Los Angeles Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes,File) 
An L.A. sanitation worker cleans up around a homeless encampment on a sidewalk in South Los Angeles in 2018. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 
A homeless man stands before his belongings at his encampment on a downtown Los Angeles sidewalk as vehicles pass by on June 7, 2017. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP / Getty Images) 
A homeless man fixes his bike outside his tent next to the 110 Freeway, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles on May 25, 2020. (Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images) 
A eow of tents lined up on the street (KTLA)
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, also known as LAHSA, counted 69,144 people experiencing homelessness in L.A. in 2022 – a 4.1% increase over 2020.
City officials have praised pandemic-era policies, like eviction moratoriums and rentals assistance, that helped keep people in their homes. However, according to LAHSA, the number of homeless people might increase with those policies ending.
Organizations across the county and beyond have made it their mission to help county residents find permanent housing.
One organization, CIRCLE (Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement), aims to move individuals experiencing homelessness off the streets and into housing while also connecting them with mental health, drug addiction, and social services.
