The Project

The purpose of the downtown Los Angeles Homeless Map is to visually tell the story of downtown's homeless population. Before a problem can be solved it must be understood. These maps exist to convey the situation on the streets to City leaders, the Police Department and all those who are concerned with homelessness in our city.

Background

Downtown Los Angeles is the epicenter of the largest homeless population in the United States. Though the problem of homelessness and the plight of those living on the streets of downtown has long been acknowledged, there has been little data to show whether the situation is becoming better or worse.

In 2006 the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division began taking counts of the homeless population living on the streets. In November the department started to take these counts every two weeks, providing the first standardized view of downtown's homeless street population.

Cartifact, a custom mapping firm located in downtown Los Angeles, approached Central division and offered its cartographic expertise. In its raw form the usefulness of the data was limited, but on a map it could be made to tell the story of a population and how it was changing over time.

The Count

Central division performed its homeless counts every two weeks. Officers would canvass each block encompassed in its boundaries and make a count of men, women, children and various kinds of shelters. A log was made of the address and the number present in each category.

By June of 2007 the counts had stabilized. Though less frequent counts continue, those are not mapped on this site.

Creating the Map

Cartifact takes the raw data from Central division and pulls it into its GIS system. The system geocodes each address to produce coordinates for the address. The plotted points are then placed onto a map of downtown Los Angeles and styled to better convey the information. The finished map is provided back to LAPD in order to serve the needs of the department, and is also placed here for public access.