An exclusive CalMatters analysis of the latest California homeless count reveals some good news and bad news: Though the growth rate of homelessness appears to be slowing, the overall number of unhoused Californians increased from two years ago.
As CalMatters homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall explains, the data from the federally-mandated count that occurred in January shows that nearly 186,000 Californians live on the streets and in homeless shelters.
That’s an 8% increase from the 181,000 people counted in 2022, the most recent year most counties in the state counted people living in encampments. And while any increase is discouraging given the billions of dollars California has spent to ease the crisis, the growth rate is smaller compared to years past, when the homeless population grew at least 13% every two years from 2015 to 2022.
Though this snapshot is important for guiding policy and determining how state and local funds are allocated, experts and advocates warn that the data should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. The actual number of homeless Californians is likely higher; not all counties conduct their counts the same year, making comparisons imperfect; and different counties have different approaches to the count (some send out volunteers to the streets, others use algorithms to estimate populations).
Given the caveats, there are still some illuminating takeaways:
- San Joaquin County: Homelessness doubled this year compared to the county’s 2022 count. Activists point to rising rents, but the county also changed its methodology this year.
- Sacramento County: The county saw the biggest drop in homelessness, falling 29% overall compared to its 2022 count. But it also changed the way it counted this year, switching to a data firm instead of researchers at Sacramento State University.
- San Diego: After passing an ordinance last year cracking down on encampments, the number of people sleeping outside without shelter increased 6% in the city compared to last year. But the number doesn’t classify sanctioned camps and safe parking sites as shelters, which Mayor Todd Gloria called “frustrating.” He told CalMatters he believes “the streets are better today than they were a year ago.”
Homelessness remains one of the state’s most intractable issues. The Public Policy Institute of California reports that since January 2021, homelessness has been consistently cited as one of the top three issues facing the state, and a February poll found that four in ten surveyed named economic conditions and homelessness as the top issues for state lawmakers to work on. Last month in a warning to counties to clear encampments, Gov. Gavin Newsom described the crisis as the “biggest scar in the reputation of the state of California.”
