The latest homeless count showed a slight dip in the number of unhoused adults in Los Angeles County who said they live with serious mental illness, but experts warn there’s still much to be done to meet the mental health needs of people living on the streets. They say one approach that has shown promise is providing psychiatrists in the field to treat people where they are. Examples include the county’s Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement program, known as HOME, and other programs like the Street Medicine teams at the University of Southern California.
But those on the front lines of the homelessness crisis say there still isn’t enough supportive housing and treatment beds to make a real difference. “They’re just not able to build them fast enough,” said Brett Feldman director of Street Medicine at USC. The 2024 point-in-time count found that 24% of unhoused people over the age of 18 self-reported that they live with a serious mental illness, according to the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority, which conducts the annual count.
That amounts to more than 15,600 people who are unhoused and living with a serious mental illness like schizophrenia across L.A. County.
Last year, LAHSA reported 25% of people identified in the point-in-time count said they were experiencing serious mental illness. Feldman, who regularly treats unhoused patients , said his approach has been to treat people’s physical ailments first, then follow up on psychiatric care when he.
