PD Editorial: A grim report on homelessness

After a pandemic pause, America’s and California’s homeless population is increasing again. Local spots of improvement, including Sonoma County, can’t hide the fact that the nation is failing too many of its residents.

The grim news came out, as grim news often does, on a Friday before the holidays. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the results of the 2023 point-in-time survey of homeless people in America conducted in January.

The 2023 count found more than 650,000 homeless people nationwide, a 12% increase from the previous year. Most of the new homeless were first-timers as pandemic relief programs that had helped keep people in housing expired.

More than a quarter of all homeless Americans live in California. Statewide, the number of the homeless has swelled by half in 10 years, and two-thirds of them are unsheltered.

It might be tempting to chalk that up to the fact that California is the largest state and has a generally amenable climate for living unsheltered, but that’s too simplistic. On a per capita basis (number of homeless per 10,000 residents), California ranks terribly while some other large, sunny states like Florida and Texas fare well.

Part of that disparity is due to legal constraints imposed by federal courts on this part of the country. Western states have fewer options to enforce camping bans and clear homeless encampments. Texas and Florida can push people elsewhere, though that also is an oversimplification. Cities like Austin and Houston have had good success helping homeless residents get off the streets and transition into permanent housing. Indeed, some California leaders have been checking out what works in those communities.

Local successes offer some hope. Sonoma County, according to the 2023 count, saw a 22% decline in the number of homeless residents. Something is going right here.

Santa Rosa and the rest of Sonoma County have converted motels to housing, created temporary authorized camp sites and allowed safe parking spaces for RVs. Some of that doesn’t end homelessness, but such projects create safe spaces where people can stabilize with a roof over their heads. With any luck the next step is finding services to address the underlying issues that led to homelessness.

One issue is not so easily remedied, though. California’s homelessness crisis is inextricably tied to its housing crisis. Homes – rented or owned – remain unaffordable to too many people, and construction is not ramping up quickly enough to meet demand.

The housing front could get more difficult, too, with local mobile home park owners threatening to close if they significantly can’t raise rents. It’s a lose-lose proposition. If rents go up too much, it will price people out. If the parks close, the people who live in them might have nowhere to go.

Nor will the state likely be able to increase funding for homelessness programs or to encourage construction of affordable housing. California faces a $68 billion budget shortfall in 2024.

Next year, then, policymakers and advocates must look for systemic changes that go beyond writing checks. California has spent billions combatting homelessness, and the federal government billions more, but things are only getting worse.

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