14,000 Homeless Women and Counting in Los Angeles County

The number of homeless women living in Los Angeles County has increased 55 percent since 2013. Women account for one in three homeless people in the county.

1 minute read

November 8, 2016, 8:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Lost Our Home

AR McLin / Flickr

Gale Holland writes a feature-length story on the state of homelessness in Los Angeles, focusing on the specific threats and struggles faced by homeless women in the city. Holland maps out the scope of the problem to begin the article:

One in three homeless people in Los Angeles County are women, according to government figures released this year. The total of more than 14,000 women is a 55% increase from 2013. The number of women camped out in RVs, tents and lean-tos doubled in the last three years.

To illuminate the reality of the threats facing homeless women, the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition released a survey recently finding that "nearly half of skid row women had been attacked in the previous 12 months" and "more than a quarter of them were sexually assaulted."

The article is supplemented by videos by Jason Hanasik. Among the stories explored in the videos are stories of stories of lost families and the great lengths homeless women must go to shield themselves from risk, many of which only introduce other risks. 

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