A report this week showing homelessness has increased in the South Bay and Harbor Area — up a whopping 39 percent over the past two years — came as little surprise to those who live and work in the coastal communities.

In San Pedro, tents and encampments have been popping up along freeways, in alleys and in public parks — and even on downtown sidewalks — making homelessness one of the most hotly debated topics in that community.

“We’ve been observing it for a while,” said Elise Swanson, CEO of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve been seeing the encampments along the freeways and we’ve been feeling it here in downtown.”

The South Bay was among those communities that saw the biggest increase in numbers reported from January’s Los Angeles County homeless street count.

Overall, the number of homeless people on the streets and in shelters of Los Angeles County has increased 12 percent since 2013, when the last count was taken, the report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority shows.

Other large increases were reported in the eastern portion of the county, which includes Bellflower, Downey, Lakewood and Whittier.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which coordinates the count of homeless people conducted every two years, points to high rents in the Los Angeles region, lack of affordable housing, low wages and high unemployment as contributing to the additional 5,000 people across the county who have become homeless.

The total number of homeless people counted over three days in late January was 44,359, according to LAHSA. More than half of the homeless live in the city of Los Angeles.

A portion of the overall increase in the number of homeless counted may be attributable to the fact that more areas of the county were surveyed this year, homeless advocates said. In 2013, about 75 percent of the county was included. About 90 percent of the county was counted this year. Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach conduct their own counts.

The results of the count are sent to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which determines the amount of federal funding the county will receive.

In the South Bay, which for purposes of the study includes the Harbor Area, “100 percent” of the communities opted into the 2015 homeless count, said Tahia Hayslet, executive director of the Harbor Interfaith Shelter in San Pedro. Full participation accounts for some of the increase that was seen, she suspects, but was not the only cause. The 39 percent jump, she said, “is huge.”

“It was a wake-up call to those in the South Bay that homelessness does exist (here),” Hayslet said, adding that more details about the survey will be available by the end of the week as the date is crunched.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who personally took part in the count, called homelessness an “epidemic” that needs to be addressed at a countywide level.

After the issue became a focus for San Pedro’s neighborhood councils earlier this year, he hired an emergency response team to work with a Los Angeles Police Department “quality-of-life” patrol to try to connect homeless individuals with services for issues such as mental illness and substance abuse.

Christine Margiotta, vice president of community impact for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, pointed to the city’s rising rents as one factor contributing to the increase in the number of homeless countywide.

“Sixty percent of renters across Los Angeles County are paying more than half of their income on rent,” Margiotta said. “One crisis can truly make a difference.”

The report shows that strides have been made. About 10,800 homeless individuals and families were placed in permanent housing in 2014, an increase from the previous year when just 6,600 people were housed.

The number of homeless veterans has remained steady at about 4,000 across the region.

Margiotta said about 10 veterans in Los Angeles County become homeless every day. About 7,500 veterans have been housed since 2013.

President Barack Obama pledged to end homelessness by the end of 2015 and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has pledged to end homelessness among veterans in his city by the end of this year.

Both temporary and permanent housing is desperately needed, said Hayslet who is combing the area for landlords willing to accept vouchers to house those on the streets.

Numbers of the homeless in the South Bay increased from 2,168 in 2013 to 3,006 this year, according to the latest report.

County Supervisor Don Knabe’s assistant chief of staff, Nick Ippolito, said the South Bay district has seen an increase in the number of encampments, tents and people living in their cars. The countywide count showed an 85 percent increase in the number of encampments from 2013.

“I was a little surprised at that,” Ippolito said.

The encampments have become a particular sore point in San Pedro, where groups of homeless have begun to congregate with tents and overflowing shopping carts in city parks and along sidewalks near the downtown shopping district.

“We’ve been getting calls and emails regarding the homeless encampments,” said Swanson who sponsored a program featuring Hayslet, Weaver and business owners Tuesday at the chamber. “People feel frustrated, like nobody’s doing anything.”

Hayslet and Weaver are working to connect qualified people on the streets to the preferred “shelter first” approach. Harbor Interfaith works primarily with families but last July was tapped to be the area’s lead service provider also for the chronically homeless. A team has been assembled that has placed 125 homeless people in homes and programs since last July, Hayslet said.

Buscaino has pledged to post 72-hour dispersal notices at encampments, meanwhile, and new signs also have gone up at impacted parks to restrict homeless encampments from settling in there.

Redondo Beach City Manager Joe Hoefgen formed a task force about a year ago to address the increase in calls for service from police and fire and calls of concern from residents regarding the homeless.

“The prospect of just letting things continue as the status quo did not seem appropriate,” he said.

Hoefgen said the calls ranged from those wanting to do something to help the homeless, to residents and businesses who said the impact was detrimental to neighborhoods or businesses.

He said the majority of the homeless population congregates in commercial districts and near the beach during the daytime.

Hayslet said the biggest challenge in combating homelessness is finding available and affordable housing.

“Most people talk about the homeless problem in other areas, like downtown (Los Angeles),” Hayslet said. “We need to collectively come together to deal with our homeless problem.”