Culver City plays its part in Los Angeles' 2026 Homeless Count

Culver City conducted its 2026 Homeless Count in partnership with the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority (LAHSA) late Thursday night. Several teams consisting of Culver City public safety officials, city staff, councilmembers, and others canvassed the city to identify unhoused residents living on the streets.

After meeting at a small staging area at City Hall, seven teams departed around 8:30 p.m. in separate vehicles to assigned sections of Culver City. Each team drove through the neighborhoods and public areas of their assigned zones, using an app provided by LAHSA to track their route and count residents living on the streets, in their cars, in tents, or in other makeshift shelters.

The effort is a part of the 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count conducted by LAHSA each year. While most cities in the Los Angeles Area enlist volunteers to assist with their Homeless Count, Culver City enlists those most connected to homelessness.

Among the counters in Culver City were three councilmembers — Mayor Freddy Puza and councilmembers Yasmine-Imani McMorrin and Dan O’Brien — along with City Manager Odis Jones, members of the city’s Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness, and employees with Wellness Village operators Urban Alchemy.

They were driven around by members of the Culver City Fire Department and the Culver City Police Department. To ensure accuracy, teams returned to the staging area to check out for the night, where the final results are compared to minimize the potential for errors or miscounts. These counts are conducted late at night because unhoused residents are most likely to remain in place then, making it easier to accurately capture where people are staying.

“You need to find out where we are seeing hot spots,” Human Services and Crisis Intervention Manager Daniel Richardson told Culver Crescent. Richardson is also part of Culver City’s Mobile Crisis Team.

"It's really important for policymakers to understand how many people we have living on the street each year," Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness member Shane Henson said, "so we can figure out how best we can organize our current resources to assist them into shelters or getting off the street."

Culver City has made a concerted effort to reduce the number of people living on the streets, resulting in a steady decrease over the past several years. Last year, 105 unhoused residents were identified as living on Culver City streets, continuing a trend that has persisted since 2022. 115 unhoused people were in Culver City in 2024, a noticeable drop from the 158 counted in 2023 and just over half of the 229 counted in 2022.

Efforts to continue safely transitioning the unhoused to services and shelter are important to ensure the community's health.

“It impacts everyone in the community,” Interim Director of the Housing and Human Services Department Mark Muenzer said of these efforts. “You could have a loved one that’s unhoused or see unhoused residents in your neighborhood that you want to see have assistance, and the city has really stepped up to make sure that’s available.”

Final numbers from the 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count are expected to be released in the late spring or early summer. For more information on the count, visit LAHSA’s official website here.