County unveils first quarterly report from new homelessness department, highlights encampment response and housing outcomes

Sarah Mahin, director of the newly formed Department of Homeless Services and Housing, delivered HSH’s inaugural quarterly report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on March 17, summarizing program activity from October through December 2025 and operational updates from January 2026.

Mahin said HSH conducted seven Pathway Home operations in the reporting quarter that “brought 148 people voluntarily into interim housing,” and that the county’s Emergency Centralized Response Center (ECRC) received 209 tickets from elected offices and municipal partners. She described integration with LA‑HOP, reporting a two‑day average response time and a six‑day average to close LA‑HOP requests during the quarter, and said the department is building public dashboards to increase transparency.

The director presented countywide interim‑and‑permanent housing figures compiled with LAHSA: 30,793 unique participants were served in interim housing during the reporting period and 133 people exited interim housing into permanent housing; 38,751 participants were living in permanent supportive housing and other publicly funded permanent programs, with 1,551 moving in during the reporting quarter. Mahin also reported retention rates she called encouraging: roughly 87% of people who moved into permanent supportive housing in a prior period showed no detected return to homelessness within a year.

Supervisors praised the data and urged more housing. Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the numbers show progress but pressed HSH to address conversion of interim placements into permanent units and to remedy perceived local security concerns around some sites. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and others asked for clearer baselines so future reports could show measurable change quarter to quarter.

Mahin acknowledged limits: ‘we need more permanent housing’ and added that HSH is working to preserve core Pathway Home infrastructure in every district despite budget pressures. She also described operational improvements — HSH transferred hundreds of agreements from predecessor units to avoid disruption, paid 99.2% of invoices in January within 20 days, and reported 358 filled county positions at launch with 215 vacancies to fill.

Board members and the public pressed for further detail on Pathway Home foot‑print expansion, ECRC dispositions and LA‑HOP close‑out rates by request type and geography. Mahin said HSH will pursue additional state revenue and will provide more granular district reporting in future quarterly updates. She said dashboards and a forthcoming spending‑plan rollout would make allocations and contract transitions clearer.

What’s next: the board asked HSH to come back with additional district‑level metrics and with a clearer multi‑quarter baseline that can be used to measure throughput from interim to permanent housing. HSH said it will continue quarterly reports and expects the public dashboards to begin populating in May.