Los Angeles

Geographic Distribution

Los Angeles County, with 4,081 square miles, 88 incorporated cities, nearly 10 million people, and a 2002–2003 budget of approximately $16.4 billion, has a population larger than that of most states in the nation—all but eight, in fact. Its largest city, Los Angeles itself, contains 470 square miles with roughly 3.7 million people. Homeless persons can be found throughout the county, with concentrations of single persons found particularly in downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Hollywood. The city of Los Angeles is estimated to have 46 to 49 percent of the county's homeless population.

Demographics

On any given night, an estimated 66 to 85 percent of homeless people are single individuals. But over the course of a year, fully half of the total population that has experienced homelessness is composed of families. This variation is primarily due to two factors. First, families are typically homeless less frequently, and for shorter periods, than are single individuals. Second, as a consequence, more families move in and out of homelessness, while the pool of single individuals remains relatively constant.

Among homeless single persons generally, 70 to 80 percent are male and the average age is about forty years. Families are characteristically headed by a single female parent. Nationally, the average homeless family has 2.2 children. Unaccompanied youth, clustering in the Hollywood area, make up a small but significant percentage of homeless single individuals, with estimates hovering at around 6,000 to 8,000 young people.

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