Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by Jocelyn Figueroa from Invisible People on September 16, 2026.
As Latino homelessness rises in Los Angeles and ICE enforcement expands into shelters once considered off-limits, advocates behind the Latine Homelessness Project have released a new guide to help providers protect immigrant communities while navigating that risk.
LA Is Seeing a Surge in Latino Homelessness, and a 2025 DHS Policy Change Means Shelters Are No Longer Safe from ICE
Los Angeles County has seen a troubling rise in Latino homelessness in recent years. According to the county’s Task Force on Latinx People Experiencing Homelessness, the number of Latino people experiencing homelessness in LA County rose 76% between 2018 and 2024, and Latino residents now make up roughly 45% of the county’s homeless population.
“Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic of homelessness in LA that no one is talking about,” Jose “Che” Ramirez, co-director of Unseen: Latine Homelessness Project, told Invisible People in an exclusive interview.
Los Angeles Lacks Targeted, Culturally Responsive Strategies To Confront Latino Homelessness
Despite having one of the largest Latino populations of any US city, Los Angeles still doesn’t have a homelessness response system built around how homelessness actually shows up in Latino communities. This begs the question of why. What is the city of Los Angeles doing wrong regarding their homelessness response? Ramirez said Los Angeles still hasn’t built a homeless response system that reflects how homelessness actually unfolds in different communities.
This is especially true for the Latino community in Los Angeles, as recent statistics show.
“For many Latino families, being unhoused looks different. It’s three families squeezed into a two-bedroom apartment because no one can afford rent alone. It’s a father sleeping in his truck while his children stay with family friends. It’s parents avoiding shelters or public assistance because they worry seeking help could jeopardize their immigration status,” Ramirez wrote in a recent Op-Ed for Calo News.
Researcher and Co-Director of the Latine Homelessness Project, Dr. Melissa Chinchilla, found that the number of doubled-up homelessness cases in Los Angeles County is roughly three-and-a-half times larger than the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population combined. Furthermore, nearly 77% of those doubled up are Latino.
Undocumented Individuals Are at Heightened Risk of Homelessness as ICE Enforcement Continues
In a recent webinar hosted by The Latine Homelessness Project and Public Counsel, we learned that an estimated 13.7 million undocumented individuals face risks of homelessness, barriers to accessing services, and legal uncertainty.
As Ramirez noted, worry over immigration status is one of many challenges facing the Latino community. Central to that is increased targeting of Latino communities and shelters within those communities by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE).
While ICE enforcement was much more visible last year, that doesn’t necessarily mean enforcement has stopped or slowed. In fact, CHRLA (The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights) reported that July 2026 had higher call volume than July 2025 to their Rapid Response hotlines, with 15,000 calls in July 2026.
“We can’t let our guard down when it comes to ICE preparedness,” he said. “While some of the visible heightened activity peaked in the summer of 2025, with patrols and aggressive tactics in open public spaces, ICE has now changed their tactics to being more discreet and targeting individuals at airports, workplaces, and at and near immigration hearing courtrooms.”
Now ICE is targeting homeless shelters.
Before last year, homeless shelters were typically safe from ICE involvement; however, in 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo stating that homeless shelters would no longer be treated as sensitive or protected areas where ICE enforcement would be restricted.
With an increased budget of $70 billion, DHS has also moved to hire more agents and acquire more detention facilities.
Ramirez shared incidents where ICE agents tried to enter shelter sites he managed last year as Interim CPO of Hope the Mission.
“We had three confirmed incidents — two were at sites I managed at the time, one a tiny home site, the other a County Pathway Home motel site — that I know of, in which ICE agents tried to enter shelter sites.”
Ramirez said one of these incidents made the news, as DHS denied it was targeting the site.
“In one they didn’t even make it inside because my staff was trained; the other was a motel site that had public access,” he continued. “The agent knocked on their motel room, only to find it was the wrong room, and the person of interest was not there. The other was at Covenant House, where a young adult was taken right in front of their headquarters in Hollywood.”
Building Trust Is the First Step Toward Protecting Immigrant Communities
Unseen’s Latine Homelessness Project, alongside Public Counsel, recently held a webinar to release a new guide: Supporting Immigrant Communities: A Preparedness & Response Guide for Shelter Providers. The guide walks homeless service providers through legal protections, site preparedness, and response strategies for navigating increased ICE enforcement, and speakers included Ramirez, Chinchilla, policy consultant Camila de la Vega, and Public Counsel attorney Ritu Mahajan Estes.
Speaking about her research on Latine homelessness at the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, de la Vega discussed the importance of building trust during the webinar.
“Fear has a long history,” she said.
“The first set of questions they are asked is their name and birth date, and that immediately triggers a fear that their information is going to be given away, and that it will affect their status,” recounted an outreach staff member.
In short, that fear is already in the room when you meet a client seeking services. The data speaks to this reality. 55% of outreach workers named perceived ties between providers and law enforcement as a top barrier, and 45% pointed to hesitation around sharing personal information at intake.
When immigrant families and individuals seek services, fear of ICE or law enforcement involvement is at the forefront, and safety and risk assessment are the first obstacles. These obstacles are understandable, but they also get in the way of communicating rights and service eligibility. Building trust can help break through this barrier.
How can we build that trust? It begins by understanding the systems that immigrant families and individuals are trying to avoid. It also means recognizing the triggers that make these same clients retreat. Most importantly, it means actively ensuring that we are not only knowledgeable about how to engage with and respond to ICE involvement but also reassuring clients.
Building trust means those we serve know we have their backs. The Latine Homelessness Project can connect homeless services providers with ICE readiness and response training by emailing Jose “Che” Ramirez at comms@unseenus.org.
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