By Stephen Witt
Sarah Mahin, the newly named head of the inaugural Los Angeles County Department of Homeless Services and Housing (HSH), said today that the City’s Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) will play an integral role when she takes over combating homelessness in January.
Mahin’s comments came when Los Angeles County Politics (LACP) asked her for a response on the 2025 Homeless Count, which the LAHSA released this week, that showed a sharp reduction in street homeless people.
“LAHSA has been, and will remain, an essential system partner in our work to prevent and address homelessness in LA County. Moving forward, LAHSA will continue to perform its core functions as the lead of the Greater Los Angeles Continuum of Care (CoC),” said Mahin in an email.
“From my own experience at LAHSA, I know the team brings tremendous expertise and commitment to this work that will be of great value to the Department of Homeless Services and Housing,” she added.
CoC is a collaborative effort to address homelessness in the County, excluding Glendale, Long Beach, and Pasadena. It’s a federal initiative managed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with LAHSA serving as the collaborative applicant.
Mahin said she was encouraged to see that the Homeless Count results reflect more people are moving off the streets, into interim housing, and permanently ending their homelessness.
“For the second year in a row, we’re seeing a trend of point-in-time homelessness declining across the County, and our homeless services system is moving more people into permanent housing,” said Mahin.
Mahin said the results also show the County’s focused emergency response and coordinated efforts with local jurisdictional leadership, people with lived experience, and provider partners are working.
“Innovative new programs such as Pathway Home, the County’s signature encampment resolution program, have connected more than 1,600 people with safe interim housing since its inception in 2023,” she said.
Mahin noted that while the 2025 homeless count results are hopeful, the work isn’t nearly done, and that according to the California Housing Partnership, nearly 500,000 households in LA County do not have access to an affordable home.
“The work we do moving forward will not be possible without continued collaboration with LAHSA, and we look forward to continuing to partner throughout this transition and beyond,” she said.
