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).
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