Long Beach launches HUD‑mandated point‑in‑time homeless count; results due in April

The City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services conducted its annual point‑in‑time homeless count on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, a survey the department says it is required to do each year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to inform policy decisions and funding applications.

City health staff said volunteers checked in, met their field teams and ‘‘they'll hear some words from the mayor, and then they'll actually go into the city and start doing surveys.’’ The on‑the‑ground work includes demographic surveys and visual counts in which teams record how many people they observe at each site.

A volunteer reporting from the field said teams began at 7th and MLK, ‘‘We typically see a lot of activity here, and so, it's a good place to start up our morning.’’ Volunteers and staff described collecting not only numbers but individual stories to help tailor services. A Health Department staff member said the count ‘‘helps us as we are applying for federal, state, and local funding’’ and that the effort ‘‘is our homeless count that we're mandated to do by HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development each year.’’

City staff cautioned that results require cleaning and statistical analysis before release; they said they aim to publish the count results in April of the following year. On the department’s public engagement and turnout, a Health Department staff member said, ‘‘It's really inspiring honestly to see so many community members actively involved in the city and really just taking ownership of everything that we're doing here with the homeless services bureau.’’

No formal policy votes or funding decisions were made during the announcement; the event was described as a data‑gathering operation to guide future policy and funding requests. For more information, the department directed people to longbeach.gov/homelesscount.