New data dashboards track homelessness in city and county of Los Angeles

In a move to promote greater transparency of how tax dollars are being used to address the homelessness crisis, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority on Wednesday made available new data dashboards to track work being done across the city and county.

The agency, in a joint effort between the city and county, posted the dashboards on its website over the last five days, which can be found at https://lahsa.org/data-refresh.

Viewers can access data on street outreach, interim housing and time-limited subsidies; details on LAHSA-funded programs and their efficacy; as well as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe initiative and the county’s Pathway Home program.

The dashboards can show how many unhoused residents entered the rehousing system in respective City Council or Board of Supervisors’ districts, how many people individual programs have helped, and the performance of local service providers.

“We’ve been working hard to provide the public access to clear, easy-to-digest data on homelessness in Los Angeles,” LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum said in a statement. “LAHSA is committed to transparency and accountability as we work toward ending homelessness for our unhoused neighbors.”

Several City Council members have called for greater transparency from LAHSA.

“For too long, the city has lacked access to comprehensive real-time data from service providers needed to inform both elected leaders and the public on our progress toward solving the homelessness crisis and the best ways to use our dollars,” said Councilwoman Nithya Raman, chair of the Homelessness and Housing Committee.

“The data available to us now clearly shows us the gaps in the system and where we need to make progress. We will now be better equipped to hold the homelessness services system accountable for dollars spent across the city and the county and be able to ensure that our investments are serving people effectively,” she added.

The five-member Homelessness and Housing Committee was expected to hear more from LAHSA officials regarding the dashboards during its Wednesday meeting.

Initial planning and development of the dashboards began in June 2023. LAHSA officials previously said their data infrastructure required significant improvement before it could be presented in a more digestible way.

While the dashboards make it easier to understand homelessness data, LAHSA said more work will be done with its service providers to improve quality. In some instances, it may be clear that data is missing or was not appropriately entered. LAHSA will roll out its data quality plan to providers in November, which is intended to identify policies and processes to improve the reliability of all data tracked through the homeless management information system moving forward.

Testing will continue for the next several months to identify bugs and errors. If dashboard users encounter a bug or seemingly incomplete results, they are asked to notify the Data Management Department via a Dashboard Feedback Form at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/923906eb956e4c3e85a3c6b5ec416d65.