Homelessness up in LA after years of improvement

The homeless crisis in the city of Los Angeles takes a turn for the worse. New official numbers revealing a spike in homelessness after years of improvement. Fox 11's Nick Garcia reports not far from LA Skid Row. Well remember for two years straight the city saw a drop in homelessness, but now the new numbers show people living on the streets has jumped nearly eight percent. The latest numbers tracking homelessness show significant increases. The number of people living on the streets up 7.9 percent. Overall homelessness including those living in shelters is up 3.4 percent. While an increase isn't the news any of us want to hear, these numbers prove that access to permanent housing is key to our system's success. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released the data Friday. According to the numbers there are fewer cars, vans, RVs and tents in the city, but a higher number of people living in the vehicles that are parked throughout the city. LASA and Mayor Karen Bass pointing to federal funding cuts and an increase in the cost of groceries, gas and rent. Housing is really expensive. Helping folks off the street, it's really expensive. The longer people stay on the street, the more cost it is to help folks. LA mayoral candidate and council member Nithya Raman, Friday afternoon. The city has spent millions of dollars moving encampments from one block to the next without actually bringing people indoors. Angelenos have given City Hall billions of dollars for housing, shelter, services and care. Inside Safe alone has cost more than 300 million dollars, but when our independently elected city controller tried to conduct a full audit, Mayor Bass refused. The Bass campaign sending a statement slamming Raman for claiming credit for the benefits of Inside Safe in her district. While running against it, Bass pointing out encampment cleanups in Raman's district under Inside Safe. We did reach out to the Mayor Bass's office for an interview, but we're told she was unavailable. In downtown Los Angeles, I'm Nick Garcia, Fox 11 News.