Volunteers fanned out across the San Gabriel Valley Wednesday and Thursday, in an annual effort to count the unhoused.

On Wednesday night, a volunteers from Pasadena to Hacienda Heights documented a crisis, amid concerns that this year’s wildfires in the county put more people on the street in a housing and rental market that many say was already too costly.

Related: The largest point-in-time homeless count in the U.S. is underway in LA County

After postponing its 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count due to the January fires, the L.A. Homeless Services Authority will kick off its annual operation on Tuesday night, aimed at covering the whole county by Thursday.

The tally provides a point-in-time snapshot of homelessness throughout the L.A. Continuum of Care — which covers most of the region except the cities of Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale. This year’s count will began with hundreds of volunteers set to traverse the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, and the Metro Los Angeles area.

The joint county-city agency expects to release data from the count in the late spring or early summer.

Last year’s count found 75,518 unhoused people in Los Angeles County, a decrease of 27% compared to the 46,260 in 2023. Officials also noted a reduction in unsheltered homelessness through the county, with a 5.1% decrease in 2024 compared to 2023, while the sheltered count increased by 12.7%

“We want to make sure are accounted for, and hopefully they have a shelter to go to,” said volunteer Abelyn Busch of the Hsi Lai Temple, in Hacienda Heights, as the count was ramping up there.

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In the city of Los Angeles, unsheltered homelessness decreased by 10.7% while the shelter count increased by 17.7%, meaning more unhoused individuals were being placed into temporary housing such as motels and hotels, shelters and other types of facilities.

The data represented an overall decrease in the homeless population for the first time after five years of steady rises.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a report in December that found homelessness increased in the nation by 18% in 2024, but highlighted that L.A. was among a handful of cities that bucked that national trend.

In its report, the federal department highlighted the Maui fire, among other natural disasters, which led to an increase in homelessness — a concern Los Angeles County officials share following the devastating January wildfires that destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities. Officials are crafting measures aimed at helping people in danger of falling into homelessness due to the fires.

The impact from the fires was a concern in Pasadena, which conducts its own count, conducted by the city of Pasadena and the Pasadena Partnership to End Homelessness.

More than 175 volunteers were set to take part in this week’s count on Wednesday night  and Thursday morning. Officials said it was difficult to forecast how the number might differ from last year and expects them to be similar to the 2024 count.

More than half of those counted last year had been Pasadena residents for an average of 22 years prior to becoming homeless.

In the 2024 homeless count, Black residents made up 27% of the homeless population while being 8% of the city’s population. The city reported that Hispanic/Latino homelessness rose in the 2024 count making up close to half of the homeless population while making up 35% of Pasadena’s population.

In both the LAHSA and Pasadena counts, the results will be announced later in the year.

Staff Writer David Wilson, photographer Keith Birmingham and City News Service contributed to this article.