Overview
- Metro announced Tuesday that a Metro-specific point-in-time count conducted Jan. 20–22, 2026 estimated 395 to 517 unhoused people on rail stations, rights-of-way and parking lots.
- The agency said that number is a 31% fall from 2025 and a 57% decline from 2024, using LAHSA-developed, HUD-aligned counting methods while noting Metro’s results were not added to the countywide total.
- Metro reported that outreach teams connected 354 people to permanent housing in fiscal year 2025–26 and credited the Care-Based Services Division and coordinated housing referrals for many of those placements.
- After a 2024 safety surge, Metro reorganized public-safety functions, launched new oversight of roughly 300 ambassadors and intervention specialists, and reported violent crime down more than 22%, operator assaults roughly halved, and serious assaults down 67%.
- Point-in-time counts measure a single night and give ranges rather than a full census, so officials say the data show notable progress on the transit system but do not by themselves prove countywide trends or direct causation.