The city's annual Point-in-Time Count and shelter data, tracked year over year — sourced directly from official city reports.
In 2023, Long Beach declared a state of emergency on homelessness. It ended in 2024. The count has risen in three of the last four years.
Data as of the 2026 Point-in-Time Count, conducted the night of January 22, 2026. The next count is expected January 2027.
People counted experiencing homelessness in Long Beach each January since 2022 — compiled from the City's published Point-in-Time Count reports.
Click any bar for exact figures and a link to that year's full report.
2021 wasn't counted — HUD canceled that year's count nationally during the pandemic. Part of the 2025 increase reflects displacement from the January 2025 Southern California wildfires, not a change in the underlying trend; the city itself flagged this in its release.
Every person counted is classified as sheltered or unsheltered on the night of the count.
Sleeping somewhere not meant for human habitation on the night of the count — a sidewalk, vehicle, park, or encampment.
Staying in an emergency shelter, transitional housing, or safe haven program on the night of the count.
Homeless continuously for a year or more, or repeatedly over several years, with a disabling condition — HUD's definition. Jumped from 46.7% to 58% of everyone counted this year.
The most common reasons people cited in the 2026 count, which allowed more than one answer — so these don't add up to 100%.
49.1% of people said they lost housing within Long Beach; the rest lost housing elsewhere and became homeless after arriving. Among people newly homeless this year, that split flips — 61.9% lost housing outside the city.
Shelter capacity grew 12% in 2025, to 1,521 beds, and the City reports 1,702 people moved into permanent housing. Upstream LB, a newer prevention initiative, launched alongside that expansion.
State-funded interim and permanent housing pathways for people living along the Los Angeles Riverbed.
Short-term financial assistance for low-income renters at risk of losing housing.
Medium-term rental assistance for low-income older adults who are severely rent-burdened.
Legal services and tenant education for low-income renters facing eviction, via the regional Stay Housed LA initiative.
Launching fall 2026 — proactive prevention services for transition-age youth (18–25) at high risk of homelessness.
Unlike our Traffic Safety and Public Safety pages, there's no open dataset to pull this from live — every figure here is compiled by hand from the City's own published reports.
The Point-in-Time Count is a single-night census of people experiencing homelessness, required annually by HUD for every Continuum of Care in the country. Volunteers and outreach teams count unsheltered people directly and pull sheltered counts from shelter records; HUD and independent researchers generally treat the unsheltered figure as a floor rather than a precise total, since it can miss people who are hidden from view. "Chronically homeless" follows HUD's federal definition — homeless continuously for at least a year, or repeatedly over several years, while having a disabling condition. Cause-of-homelessness figures reflect what people self-reported to counters or intake staff and allow multiple answers. Shelter bed and permanent-housing figures come from the City's own program reporting, not the PIT Count itself. Because 2021's count was canceled nationwide and 2025's total was inflated by wildfire displacement, year-over-year comparisons across those two years should be read with that context, not as a clean trend line.