The number of homeless people dropped in California and nationwide last year.

That's according to a new US Department of Housing and Urban Development report.

Overall, the country saw a 3.3% drop in homelessness, marking the first decrease since 2016.

California reported one of the largest decreases in homelessness last year.

There were 181,934 homeless Californians counted last year, a 2.8% decrease from 2024, according to the new federal report.

In California, 17 communities reported declines in the number of people who were, quote, chronically homeless, meaning they have a disability and have been homeless for a year or longer.

Los Angeles County reported 2394 fewer such people.

Officials attributed that decline to opening new housing, placing people in housing more quickly, using a coordinated system to match people with available units, and increasing street outreach.

According to the report, the federal government downplayed the small one year decrease in homelessness, instead focusing on the fact that homelessness has climbed 27% nationwide since 2013.

That's when the country started following a housing first practice of moving people into housing right away, instead of requiring them to first get sober or meet other conditions.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the Housing First quote status quo has not meaningfully reduced homelessness and results end, quote, crisis levels of people living on the streets.

An Oliva CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said the progress reflected in the 2025 count is due to targeted service resources that were available in 2024 to rehouse people.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has largely deprived these tools and work to dismantle the very systems that drove these reductions, she said.

For Cal Matters, I'm Marisa Kendall.