California's homelessness crisis just can't catch a break

Despite setting aside billions to alleviate homelessness, California continues to lead the U.S. with the highest rate of unhoused people living outdoors. It is "a worsening humanitarian crisis," said The Guardian. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) most recent Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) captured a "point in time" snapshot from a year ago of how many people were experiencing homelessness nationwide. The agency counted 653,104 unhoused people across the U.S. on one single day, "the highest number since the count began in 2007," The Guardian explained. 

California "helped drive the surge" as the most populous state with the most unhoused people overall. Advocates point to a scarcity of available, affordable housing as the root cause of homelessness, made worse by the end of pandemic programs that expanded temporary shelters and eviction protection. 

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Why is the homelessness crisis in California so dire? 

In California, the majority of unhoused people are also "unsheltered," meaning living outside in cars, tents, or makeshift shelters, as opposed to indoor temporary housing. The state reported 181,399 people experiencing homelessness in January per the HUD report, and 68% of them said they were living outside, a higher percentage than any other state. That population comprises nearly half of the unsheltered people on the streets nationwide. By comparison, in New York, another state with a large number of people experiencing homelessness, only 4.9% are reportedly living on the streets.

California is also home to the metro regions with the highest rates of unsheltered people, including the San Jose area, where 75% of the unhoused population is on the streets, Los Angeles (73%), the Oakland region (73%), Long Beach (72%) and Sacramento (72%). "The Golden State also reported the largest number of unaccompanied youth," The Guardian pointed out, with 10,173 unhoused people under age 25.

Even though some have repeatedly claimed that the homelessness crisis in the state is due to people flocking to California from elsewhere in search of better weather or public benefits, new research published by UC San Francisco last summer "casts doubt on this theory," The Atlantic reported. Led by Margot Kushel, director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, the researchers conducted what they considered to be "the largest representative survey of homeless people in more than 25 years," The Atlantic noted. The results were culled from survey data from 3,200 homeless people in California and interviews with more than 300 of them. 

The team unveiled that the "overwhelming majority of homeless people surveyed were locals, not migrants from far away," the outlet summarized. Ninety percent were living in California when they lost their last housing, and 75% lost their homes in the same county where they were experiencing homelessness. Among the 10% who came from other places, 30% were born in California. 

How have local politicians tried to tackle the crisis? 

Addressing homelessness has been an expensive endeavor for the state so far, which spent a "stunning $17.5 billion" between 2018 and 2022 attempting to combat homelessness, CNN reported. Despite spending all of that money, "the state's homeless population actually grew," the outlet added.

Jason Elliott, senior adviser on homelessness to Gov. Gavin Newsom, assured CNN that the problem "would be so much worse, absent these interventions." Admittedly, it is "not what people want to hear."

The state has allocated $20.6 billion through 2024 to fight homelessness, with nearly $4 billion sent to local governments to fund anti-homelessness initiatives, per CNN. $3.7 billion was spent on Gov. Newsom's Project Homekey, providing funds for buying and converting properties into permanent affordable housing. The project has completed over 14,000 units since its launch in 2020. "It's not enough," said Elliott. "But reversing the slide is the first step to creating an increase." 

Another $2 billion went toward rewarding developers with tax credits for building affordable housing, which has resulted in 481 new units, with thousands expected to follow. An additional $2 billion went to start affordable housing initiatives stalled by lack of funding, and almost $2 billion was spent on emergency rental assistance. 

After years of slow progress, the "politics around homelessness also took a turn" in 2023, Cal Matters reported. Gov. Newsom and other lawmakers began embracing more controversial aggressive policies "like clearing encampments and penalizing local governments for inaction while promoting 'tiny homes' as a scalable solution." The governor has also allocated a significant portion of the pot for programs targeting the overlapping mental health crisis. He recently signed a bill that expanded the state's conservatorship system to include people who are unable to provide themselves with basic necessities due to untreated mental illness or drug abuse. The law would allow state governments to commit people who might otherwise refuse help involuntarily. 

Why has progress been so slow? 

The end of pandemic-era housing policies and disastrous wildfire seasons in recent years exasperated an existing housing crisis in California. That underlying crisis has continued to drive homelessness in the state, Meghan Henry, project director for the AHAR, told The Guardian. "The three main [factors] that create this issue are unaffordable housing, stagnated incomes and systemic racism," she noted. 

Elliott, Newsom's homelessness adviser, told CNN that California needs at least 2.5 million more units to fix the housing deficit. The problem is decades in the making because of politicians' policy choices. "We are not blameless," Elliot said, "And when I say we, I mean Republicans and Democrats alike." Though they have plans to build more affordable units by 2030, housing and zoning decisions lie in the hands of local government, which has stalled progress in some cases. 

"We've got communities in this state that are refusing to build low-income housing," Elliott added. "Because they say it’s all just rapists and child molesters." The state has filed some lawsuits against several wealthier cities for "thwarting the construction of affordable housing within their borders."

The judicial branch has become a roadblock for many California Democrats who have resorted to more controversial means of getting people off the streets. San Francisco Mayor London Breed protested against a ruling banning encampment sweeps outside a courthouse. Gov. Newsom was so enraged by a similar order that "he considered doxxing the judge," Jeremy White wrote for Politico.

Courtrooms across California and elsewhere have issued rulings that "barred cities from clearing encampments," White wrote. The "standoffs" between Democrats and judges speak "to the intractable state of California’s defining issue," he said.