The Hollywood dream appears to have turned into a nightmare, with thousands of Angelenos fleeing the city.

A total of 53,934 people left Los Angeles County between July 2024 and July 2025, according to the latest population data from the US Census. 

Former residents who spoke to the Daily Mail blamed high rents and crime-ridden streets for their decision to abandon the Democrat-run city, which is also in the grip of a joblessness crunch.

Last month a Daily Mail photographer found sidewalks in the city's famous Venice Beach neighborhood covered with makeshift homeless encampments. Residents say used needles and garbage strewn across the street is a daily occurrence. 

And in the dark hours, prostitutes linger on the corners hoping for business while police look the other way. 

Sherly Rivera Feher, 30, moved from Koreatown in LA to Overland Park, Kansas, in December. The native Angeleno had finally had enough. 

Feher told the Daily Mail that she and her husband were begrudgingly paying $3,800 a month for their two-bedroom apartment near Glendale that was steps away from a number of homeless people and prostitutes. 

'It started to get really pricey, and we also just didn't feel safe at all,' Feher said.

'Paying that much, we were hoping to at least get some safety as well... There are needles on the floor and everything [in Koreatown], and just a lot of the mental illness and drug addiction out there.' 

After visiting her sister in Kansas, the couple, who hope to one day have children, decided they liked the slower pace of life in the Midwest and found the area to be more suitable for raising a family. 

Her brother still lives in Koreatown and raises a son there. It hurts her to see her nephew living in a neighborhood surrounded by drug addiction and mental illness. 

'It just pains me to know that my nephew is exposed to all that. And when we have kids, we just don't want them to be exposed to any of those things,' Feher told the Daily Mail. 

Feher saw a huge change in Los Angeles after the pandemic, when the homeless population increased, rising to more than 72,000 people in 2025. 

As she drove to her grocery store job at 4am, Feher said she'd often see prostitutes lining the corners. Police often did nothing about it, she claimed, and it made her wary of driving through the area to get to work. 

'I would drive past that area every day, and you would see police officers just driving by, but nothing would be done about the prostitution,' she told the Daily Mail. 

Given the explosion of problems, Feher said LA's exodus does not surprise her. 

'I just think it's gotten way too out of control, but I do hope that someday they're able to fix this, give more resources to homeless people, help them with drug addiction, mental illness, whatever it may be,' she said. 

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Kolby Lee, spokesperson for Democrat mayor Karen Bass, hit back: 'Facts matter: LA is safer than it’s been in decades, including declines in violent crime for the last two years and homicides at a 60-year low. 

'And while homelessness is rising across the country, Mayor Bass has reduced street homelessness here by nearly 18 percent. 

'Of course the cost of living is too darn high. And it’s been pushed even higher by bad decisions out of Washington - from tariffs to global instability that’s driving up gas prices.'

But Feher isn't the only one citing crime and cost of living as the reasons they left LA. 

Matthew Thomas recently moved to Illinois from LA after spending a decade in the City of Angels and even raising a daughter there. 

'I'm so done with LA, dude! I'm so done!' Thomas said in a July TikTok video as he angrily strummed his guitar. 

The final straw for him was a homeless person trespassing on his property after climbing over the fence and sitting in his yard. 

'It's bulls**t! They don't do anything about these people. It's some transient, drugged-up loser... It scared the living daylights out of my wife and daughter who's out there. 

'He's just chilling, drugged up out of his mind.' 

Thomas was eventually able to get the man to leave, but said it took the LAPD more than an hour to respond to his call. 

The homeless man then came back to the fence, and police were able to apprehend him. After running his record, police informed Thomas the man allegedly had prior convictions, including for assault, and was breaking his probation. 

'So that's the state of how things are in California, and LA specifically,' said Thomas. 'Forgive me if I'm saying I'm tired of it and don't want to live here anymore because it sucks.' 

Days later, another homeless guy was found standing on Thomas' driveway with a cart of tortillas and apples, he said in a follow-up video. 

'I need to be gone. I cannot be in this city anymore,' he said. 'I can't leave the house without them throwing a homeless guy party somewhere on our property.

'There's a lot of great places to live in this country. I don't know why I would subject myself to the income tax of this state, to the homeless problem of this state, and to the inattention of the government to this state.' 

In March, he moved his family to Illinois near Chicago. 

'[LA] wasn't the same city that I moved to 10 years ago,' he said, citing the cost of living, the constant wildfires, and the homelessness crisis. 

For many, the high-taxed state isn't worth the cost of their sanity and safety. 

'There is a real sense of burnout,' Robert Rivani, who moved his company to Miami, told Fox News Digital. 'They are paying insane taxes and getting absolutely nothing in return. 

'People feel like they’re living in a place that’s draining them financially and in exchange they’re dealing with rising crime, shrinking services, and a sense that everyone around them is trying to leave too.' 

Compass Realtor Chad Carroll told the outlet he had a client whose house was broken into twice. 

'These are individuals who have spent their lives building businesses and wealth, and they feel that California has become a place that takes everything and gives back very little in terms of safety, infrastructure and opportunity,' he said. 

Despite the sense of unease, crime was down 12.4 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. 

Robbery and aggravated assault were around the same, with 2,328 armed robberies in 2024 compared to 2,235 in 2025. With aggravated assault, there were 9,939 in 2024 and 9,935 in 2025. But overall violent crime was down in the county.  

In the most recent LAPD statistics, crime is down 3.4 percent citywide compared to the same time last year, with only aggravated assaults up one percent. 

Homicide is down 16.2 percent and robbery is down 8.2 percent, police statistics showed. 

As for rising rent, 2026 is starting to see a dip in prices, with it hitting a four-year low in January. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the metro area is $2,167 and $2,030 in the county, according to The Los Angeles Times. 

Prior to January, renters faced rising prices for years and many were being priced out of the city. 

Although it is unclear where Angelenos are fleeing to, many counties in Texas gained tens of thousands of new residents. 

Harris County, which includes Houston, gained 48,695 new residents. Collin County, which contains parts of Plano, gained 42,966 residents, the Census said. 

Meanwhile, four California counties - Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and Ventura - saw losses, with LA suffering the worst. The other three counties saw fewer than 10,000 people leave. 

California had the biggest losses per county, followed by Florida. 

The Golden State had four counties in the top 10 with declining populations, with a total of 70,328 people leaving LA, San Diego, Orange, and Ventura counties. 

Florida took the second and third spots behind Los Angeles, with a total of 21,949 people leaving the Sunshine State from those counties.  

LA Mayor Karen Bass, who is running for reelection, has been criticized for the state of the City of Angels and its high crime rates and growing homeless population. 

Last month, the mayor was embarrassed again after a man was discovered living in a manhole for a year. 

He was discovered by city workers who were planning on sealing a storm drain. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the LAPD for comment.