Homelessness in the city of Los Angeles proper, meanwhile, jumped by 16 percent, according to the latest annual census by the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA), despite a concerted push by local officials to move more people from the streets into permanent housing.

Overall, the authority counted nearly 59,000 people sleeping on sidewalks, in makeshift tents, in abandoned vehicles or in shelters and government-subsidized “transitional housing” on any given night in Los Angeles County.

It took nearly a year and a half, but officials voted Friday to declare Los Angeles a “city of sanctuary,” long after other left-leaning cities took a similar stand against the Trump administration’s policies toward immigrants who lack legal status.

The Los Angeles City Council voted 12 to 0 to approve a symbolic resolution that elected officials first proposed in September 2017.

At the time, Councilman Gil Cedillo and Council President Herb Wesson called the proposal a response to President Trump’s plan to unwind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

But their resolution sat in committee for months. Critics questioned whether they would turn their press conference rhetoric into an actual label for an immigrant-rich city.

Immigrant-rights advocates said Friday’s vote came too late to have much impact.

“They missed the opportunity to do this when it really mattered — back when the immigrant community of Los Angeles needed to know where its city stood,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.

The resolution doesn’t provide any new legal protections for immigrants, but instead reaffirms existing policies, including Special Order 40, which bars Los Angeles police officers from initiating contact with someone solely to determine whether they are in the country legally.

The resolution declares Los Angeles to be a “City of Sanctuary, protecting the human rights of all our residents.”

Meanwhile, mayors in Boston, Chicago and elsewhere had already reaffirmed their cities as sanctuaries, and the California Legislature passed a controversial state law that aims to protect immigrants.