Homelessness in California

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that more than 171,500 people were homeless in California in January 2022. This represents 30% of the homeless population of the United States even though California has slightly less than 12% of the country's total population, and is the highest per capita rate in the nation, with 0.44% of residents being homeless.[1] More than two-thirds of homeless people in California are unsheltered (meaning they sleep on the streets, in encampments, or in their cars), which is the highest percentage of any state in the United States. Half of the unsheltered homeless people in the United States live in California: about 115,500 people, which is nine times as many as the state with the second highest total.[1] Even those who are sheltered are so insecurely, with 90% of homeless adults in California reporting that they spent at least one night unsheltered in the past six months.[2]: 53 

A tent city on East 12th Street in Oakland, California, set up by local homeless people, 2019
Homeless man in Fresno, California, 2019

In both the 2007–22 and 2020–22 spans, California experienced higher increases in the number of people experiencing homelessness than any other state.[1] Between 2010 and 2020, the number of people experiencing homelessness in California increased by 31%, while nationwide the number fell by 18%.[3] Between 2020 and 2022, the number increased 6% in California and less than half a percent in the rest of the country.[4][1] In 2021, 19% of Californians surveyed said they or someone close to them had been homeless at some point during the previous five years.[5] 36% of homeless people in California are categorized as "chronically homeless"[2]: 24 —which means that "they have a long-standing disability that significantly impedes their ability to live independently and have been unhoused for a consecutive year or on at least four occasions within a three-year period." The other 64% are categorized as "experiencing short-term homelessness"[6] though many of them may have been homeless for similarly long periods of time but do not have "a long-standing disability" of the sort that meets the definition.[2]: 24  80% of homeless people in California are adults not with children, and an estimated 40% of those are aged 50 and older. 14% are families with children. 7% are unaccompanied youth (where "youth" is defined as being under age 25).[6]

A 2022 study found that differences in per capita homelessness rates across the United States are not due to mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty, but to differences in the cost of housing, with West Coast cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego having homelessness rates five times that of areas with much lower housing costs like Arkansas, West Virginia, and Detroit, even though the latter locations have high burdens of opioid addiction and poverty.[7][8][9][10] California has the second lowest number of housing units per capita, and an estimated shortage of one million homes affordable to the lowest income renters. Another 2022 study found that moderate decreases in rents would lead to significant declines in homelessness.[11] A 2023 study published by the University of California, San Francisco also found that the high cost of housing was the greatest obstacle to reducing homelessness.[12]

Health aspects
See also: Homelessness in the United States § Health

In 2019, homeless people were hospitalized in California 119,815 times and made 324,823 emergency department visits.[13]

In a survey of homeless adults in California, 45% rated their health as "poor or fair" and 60% reported having a chronic disease.[2]: 54 

In March 2019 The Atlantic reported that outbreaks of what it called "Medieval diseases" such as tuberculosis and typhus were spreading in homeless shelters throughout California. These outbreaks have been described as a "public-health crisis" and a "disaster" by public health officials who are concerned they might spread into the general population.[14]

Street medicine is defined as "health and social services developed specifically to address the unique needs and circumstances of the unsheltered homeless delivered directly to them in their own environment." Health services provided via street medicine include chronic condition diagnosis, disease management, and preventive medicine. As of 2021 there were at least 25 street medicine programs operating in California. The average program had 615 patients and conducted 2,352 patient visits, but most programs had fewer than 500 patients and conducted fewer than 500 visits.[15]

A representative survey of homeless adults in California found that 82% had experienced a mental health condition at some point; 66% were currently experiencing symptoms of mental illness; and 27% had been hospitalized for mental health reasons.[2]: 26, 59 

65% of those surveyed said they had regularly used illegal drugs at some point in their lives, and 62% said they had at some point been heavy drinkers. 57% had been treated for substance use disorder at some point. 31% were current users of methamphetamines, 16% abused alcohol. 20% had required medical attention for an overdose.[2]: 27–28  24% saw their substance use as a problem. Of those who used drugs or alcohol regularly, 20% wanted treatment but were unable to obtain it.[2]: 62–63 

Possible causes

Insufficient housing
Main article: California housing shortage

In California housing costs are exceptionally high and the supply of affordable housing is low. California ranks second from the bottom among U.S. states in the number of housing units per capita.[16] As of 2021 California had only 24 homes that were considered affordable and available for each 100 of the lowest income renter households, putting the housing shortage in California for this category of renters at about one million homes.[17]

In the 2022 book Homelessness is a Housing Problem, the authors studied per capita homelessness rates across the country along with what possible factors might be influencing the rates. They found that high rates of homelessness are caused by shortages of affordable housing, not by mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty.[7][8][9][10] They found that mental illness, drug addiction and poverty occur nationwide, but not all places have equally expensive housing costs.[8]: 1  One example cited is that two states with high rates of opioid addiction, Arkansas and West Virginia, both have low per capita rates of homelessness, because of low housing prices.[8]: 1  [9]: 1  With respect to poverty, the city of Detroit is one of the poorest cities, yet Detroit's per capita homelessness rate is 20% that of West Coast cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.[8]: 1  [9]: 1  The Sacramento Bee noted that large cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco attribute increases in the number of people experiencing homelessness to the housing shortage.[18]

A 2002 study found "that the incidence of homelessness [in California] varies inversely with housing vacancy rates and positively with the market rent for just-standard housing" and concluded that "moderate increases in housing vacancy rates and moderate decreases in market rents are sufficient to generate substantial declines in homelessness."[11]

Deinstitutionalization

A nationwide policy of deinstitutionalization (the closing of state mental hospitals which confined mentally ill people) in favor of smaller community-based psychiatric inpatient units between the 1960s and 1980s was not accompanied by a compensatory increase in such community-based units. This was also the case in California, and as a result there are fewer adult psychiatric residential, acute, and sub-acute slots available than would be necessary to meet the need.[16]

Deinstitutionalization coincided with the swelling of the U.S. prison system, and many people who previously would have been confined in state mental hospitals became confined in jails and state prisons instead.[19][11] In 2012 there were about ten seriously mentally ill people incarcerated in the United States for each such person hospitalized.[20] More than three-quarters of homeless California adults surveyed reported having been jailed or imprisoned at some point.[2]: 26 

Recent California reforms meant to relax this mass incarceration have had the effect of releasing many of these people, whose mental illnesses, compounded by the trauma of incarceration, and combined with the stigma of being an ex-con, can make it especially difficult for them to find housing.[16] A survey of homeless adults in California found that 19% had transitioned into homelessness directly from an institutional setting such as a jail or prison, and most reported having received no sort of transitional services to prevent this.[2]: 35 

Climate

The climate in California is relatively mild compared to many other regions of the United States. Especially because housing is very expensive in California, people with limited resources may rationally prioritize spending on things other than housing even if this threatens to lead to homelessness, in a way that would be less-rational in a place where homelessness means exposure to a more dire environment. Some evidence for this is that even within California, rates of homelessness are lower in regions that experience colder winter temperatures.[11]

It does not appear to be the case that large numbers of homeless people migrate to California from elsewhere. A representative survey of homeless adults in California found that 90% had been living in California at the time they became homeless (and 75% were in the same county in which they had last had housing).[2]: 23 

Youth

According to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress for 2020, 36% of homeless youth (defined as people under the age of 25) in the United States live in California.[21] As of January 2022, 7% of those who are homeless in California are considered to be unaccompanied youth (people under the age of 25 not accompanied by parents or guardians).[6] More than 220,000 public school (K-12) students in California experienced homelessness in 2020–21.[22]

Many homeless youth are considered to be "throwaway youth", e.g. adolescents that were forced out of their houses and onto the streets. There may be multiple reasons for this, such as parents unaccepting of gender identity or sexual orientation, pregnancy, abuse, etc. Other homeless youth may be “runaway youth” who flee their houses and live on the streets. Abuse, neglect, conflict, or poverty are among the reasons they run away.[23]

State-level political action

The California State Auditor reported in 2021 that "[a]t least nine state agencies administer and oversee 41 different programs that provide funding to mitigate homelessness, yet no single entity oversees the State’s efforts or is responsible for developing a statewide strategic plan."[24]

In February 2023, California's Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that the state had spent $9.6 billion on alleviating homelessness between 2018 and 2021, and had provided related services to 571,000 people during that time. However, most of those served did not end up housed, and the number of homeless people in the state increased during that period.[25]

In November 2022, Governor Newsom briefly threatened to withhold homelessness-related state financial support from the state's counties in response to what he called "simply unacceptable" homelessness reduction plans that the counties had submitted. Those plans would have reduced homelessness by a mere 2% over four years.[26] Newsom relented two weeks later, releasing the funds on the condition that the counties submit more ambitious plans for the next set of grants.[27]

In 2016, California adopted the Housing First model to govern all of its state programs that provide shelter to people experiencing homelessness. The chronic housing shortage in California made such a model difficult to implement in practice.[16]

Homeless Data Integration System

In 1993 the U.S. government created the "Continuum of Care" (CoC) system which divides states into regions containing organizations like homeless services providers and local governments, for the purpose of Housing and Urban Development department funding. There are 44 such CoCs in California.[28]

In an attempt to improve policymaker legibility, California adopted the Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS) in April 2021. It coordinates and consolidates data collected by the state CoCs. HDIS is administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.[29]

Housing roadblock reforms

California Senate Bill 35 (2017) and Senate Bill 9 (2021)—which both became law—aimed to reduce bureaucratic and local government roadblocks to building housing. SB35 made it easier to get multifamily housing developments approved, while SB9 allowed many homeowners to build granny units on their property or to subdivide their property into an additional lot on which a house could be built.[16]

Local NIMBY sentiment, in part from homeowners who benefit from the rising prices associated with restricted housing supply, have led to single-family zoning and other restrictions on residential development.[16] In 2021 new California laws limited the ability of local governments to prevent the building of housing with regulations like these,[30] and in 2023 the state government became more assertive about rejecting local housing & zoning plans that it viewed as being unreasonably restrictive—in some cases this meant that proposed developments would be approved by default without the explicit approval of local authorities.[31]

Tiny house villages

In 2023, California announced plans to spend $30 million to build 1,200 tiny houses in parts of the state as alternatives to homeless encampments.[32] Such tiny houses can be built for about $73,000, which is a fraction of the cost of building permanent housing in the state.[16]

Hospital discharge plans

In 2019, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1152, mandating that hospitals have a discharge plan for homeless patients before discharging them and that they ensure such patients have food, shelter, medicine, and clothes for their posthospital care.[33] While many homeless people are eligible for free health insurance from Medi-Cal, it can be arduous for homeless people to apply, causing many homeless people to not have health insurance.[34]

Projects Roomkey and Homekey

Project Roomkey is a homeless relief program designed to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus among homeless people. It began in March 2020, with funding largely coming from FEMA. The program was slated to end in late 2020, but continued with state and local funding. The program housed homeless people in vacant motel or hotel rooms, particularly those aged 65 or older or who had an underlying medical condition. [35]

Project Homekey is a continuation of Project Roomkey that focuses on the creation of low-cost housing by repurposing hotels, motels, vacant apartments, and other buildings. Phase one received $600 million in funding combined from the United States federal government's Coronavirus Aid Relief Fund (CARES Act) and California's general fund, and ended in December 2020.[36] Under this program, local governments purchased 94 hotels and motels and converted them into some 6,000 permanent housing units.[37]

In 2021, the state authorized $12 billion in spending on homelessness, including $150 million to continue Project Roomkey and $5.8 billion to build new housing units for phase two of Project Homekey.[38]

Forced mental-health and addiction treatment

Former state Assemblyman Mike Gatto proposed in a 2018 opinion piece that a new form of detention be created as a method to force drug-addicted and mentally ill homeless people (who he claims make up two-thirds of California's homeless population) off the streets and into treatment, as well as to lengthen the jail terms for misdemeanors.[39]

A law enacted in September 2022 with broad bipartisan support established county-level "CARE courts",[40] which can order some people with untreated schizophrenia or psychosis into housing and treatment programs. It includes sanctions for counties that do not comply with the program by December 2024; some counties are to begin implementing the program in Fall 2023.[41][42] Under the provisions of the bill, families, clinicians, first-responders, and other behavior control specialists may petition the CARE Court, and after a clinical assessment that the person who is the subject of the petition is severely endangered or a threat to others as a result of untreated schizophrenia or psychosis, a judge would be authorized to mandate up to 24 months of court-ordered medication, substance abuse treatment, and housing. A bipartisan group of mayors gave tentative support.[43] The group Disability Rights California has sued in an attempt to stop the implementation of the law.[42]

Another bill, 2023's SB43, makes it easier for the government to involuntarily confine and treat a person with a mental illness (which for the purposes of this law includes someone with a substance use disorder) who is "unable to provide for their personal safety or necessary medical care."[44] The bill was signed into law in October 2023. The new law undoes some of the reforms of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, a law dating to the governorship of Ronald Reagan in 1967, which restricted the government's ability to involuntarily confine and treat people with mental illnesses.[45]

Mental health housing and residential services

A ballot initiative is anticipated in California in 2024 under the provisions of which the state would issue bonds to pay for new residential behavioral health facilities as well as housing and residential services for people with mental illness and substance abuse disorders.[46]

Housing assistance via Medi-Cal

In 2022 California launched the CalAIM program under which a small number of particularly vulnerable patients can use their health insurance plans to help them find affordable housing, pay rental deposits, prevent evictions, or address health hazards in the home. A pilot program conducted in Alameda County in 2016–21 assisted 30,000 patients. Of those who were homeless, 36% ended up in permanent housing.[47]

California asked the federal government for permission to also issue short-term rent subsidies through Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid, to patients who are homeless or who are vulnerable to losing their homes.[48]

Criminalization of homelessness

To various extents, California local governments have experimented with criminalizing homelessness. This is accomplished with laws that, for example, make it a criminal offense to sleep out of doors or in a vehicle in some jurisdiction.[49]

The 2018 Appeals Court ruling Martin v. Boise restricted governments' abilities to enforce anti-vagrancy laws of this nature. The court held that cities cannot criminalize sleeping outdoors on public property if there are not enough shelter beds available for homeless people, as this would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[50]

[T]he Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter.... That is, as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.

— Martin v. Boise

That court reaffirmed this in its 2022–23 Johnson v. Grants Pass ruling, which invalidated the use of “anti-sleeping”, “anti-camping”, and “park exclusion” ordinances to criminalize homelessness:

...the City of Grants Pass cannot, consistent with the Eighth Amendment, enforce its anti-camping ordinances against homeless persons for the mere act of sleeping outside with rudimentary protection from the elements, or for sleeping in their car at night, when there is no other place in the City for them to go.

— Opinion, Johnson v. Grants Pass

Public bathrooms

Existing law in California requires that establishments run by public agencies must have bathroom facilities available for the public, provided without any cost or charge.[51] However, the Right to Restrooms Act of 2021 introduced by CA Assemblymember Quirk-Silva would have required that local governments take inventory of existing public restroom facilities and provide a report to the State Department of Public Health so that public databases with information on the availability, location, etc. of these facilities can be created and accessed by the public.[52] This bill mentioned creating internet databases and a dissemination of this information in "user-friendly" formats particularly so that it was "available to agencies and service providers that work directly with homeless populations within the local government’s jurisdiction." [52] This bill died in committee for the 2021-2022 legislature session but was reintroduced by Quirk-Silva under the same name for the 23-24 session and is currently being reviewed in committee.[53]

Comparisons to and lessons from Texas

From 2012 to 2022, California's state-wide homeless population increased by 43%, while Texas's decreased by 28%.[54]: 1  For select cities and localities, the divergence was even greater, with Sacramento County's homelessness increasing by 230% over the same period, Los Angeles County's increasing by 106%, while Houston's decreased by 57%.[54]

This fact has recently caused many politicians and policy makers from California to visit Texas cities and homeless organizations to try and learn how Texas's solutions have succeeded and how those lessons can be applied in California.[54]: 1  Experts say that the largest reason that California has a per-capita homelessness rate of five times that of Texas is because housing is much more expensive in California; with the median one-bedroom unit in California renting for $2,200 per month, while in Texas it is $1,200.[54]: 1 Housing costs are higher because California has much stricter land-use regulation and zoning laws (Houston, for example, has no zoning) making it much harder to build housing: in 2022, Texas issued more than twice as many housing permits as California, even though California has 9 million more people.[54]

Other differences are that Texas spends almost all of its homeless dollars on permanent housing, while California splits its funding between temporary shelters and permanent housing, and Texas agencies all coordinate and work together, whereas in California they do not, as exampled by Los Angeles County, where four separate government agencies all compete for the same state dollars.[54]

Counties

Los Angeles
Tents of the homeless on the sidewalk in Skid Row, Los Angeles, 2018

As of February 2022 more than 40% of people experiencing homelessness in California lived in Los Angeles County.[6] The homeless population of L.A. County increased by 65% between 2020 and 2022.[4][1]

In June 2023, L.A. County officials reported that according to a point-in-time survey, over 75,500 people were homeless in the county, which was up from 69,000 the previous year, and 70% higher than 2015.[55] The number who were unsheltered rose at an even higher rate, to 55,000 (the number of sheltered homeless people in L.A. County declined slightly).[55] The number who were "chronically homeless" (homeless for more than a year with a disabling condition) had increased to 32,000 people.[55] 31% of homeless residents of L.A. County were Black, 43% Latino, 2% Asian.[55] 25% reported experiencing severe mental illness, and 30% reported having a substance use disorder.[55]

A 2013 census noted that 18.2% had a physical disability; 68.2% of homeless people were male, and 57.6% were between 25 and 54 years old.[56]

The Board of Supervisors of L.A. County wrote to the State Legislature asking that California "pass a resolution urging the Governor to declare a state of emergency with respect to homelessness"[57] in June 2016. In 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom fulfilled this request.[58] L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas in an opinion piece said that homelessness had reached emergency levels in L.A. County, with over 900 people dying on the streets in 2018, and over a thousand projected to die in 2019. Exposure to the elements cuts the lifespan of those who survive on the streets by 20 years. He attributed the crisis to rising rents, lack of affordable housing, and stagnant wages.[59]

There are an estimated 4,021 homeless young-adults between the ages of 18 and 24 on any given night in L.A. County as of 2019, a 22% increase over 2018, per the Greater Los Angeles Youth Homeless Count.[60] The count defines youth as people 24 years old and younger.[61]

Los Angeles spent $619 million on 36,000 homeless people in 2019, approximately $17,194 per person; however, the number of people who are homeless continues to grow.[62] Peter Lynn, head of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) who saw homelessness rise 33% during his five years in spite of $780 million in additional funding, resigned his job at the end of 2019.[63]

City of Los Angeles
A homeless person in Los Angeles sleeps on the street, 2010

According to a 2019 Los Angeles Times poll, 95% of voters called homelessness a serious or very serious problem in the city, more than for any other issue.[64] L.A. County officials reported that in 2019 there were over 39,000 homeless people in the city.[65] More homeless people die from hypothermia in Los Angeles (average winter low temperature: 49 °F (9 °C)) than in New York City (average winter low temperature: 26 °F (−3 °C)).[66]

In November 2022, voters approved Measure ULA, a tax on high-price real estate sales with the proceeds designated to fund affordable housing and homelessness services. The tax went into effect on 1 April 2023.[67]

In December, 2022, new mayor Karen Bass declared a "state of emergency" and issued an executive order aimed at removing hurdles to developing affordable housing and shelters for homeless people. The order instructs city agencies to process the bureaucratic paperwork associated with such projects within sixty days, rather than the six to nine months the agencies are accustomed to, and reduces the number of regulatory veto points for such projects.[68]

In 2016, voters approved a $1.2 billion bond measure designed to create permanent supportive housing. A report from the L.A. Controller's office criticized the implementation of the measure: five years after it passed, only 14% of the housing had been completed, and the average per-unit cost was about $600,000.[16]

The Los Angeles Police Department has issued citations and fines against people living in public areas as part of the Safer Cities Initiative that began in September 2006.[69] This Central Police division's initiative entailed assigning fifty full-time officers to clearing out "homeless encampments" in different parts of downtown. Once they cleared an area, they would stay for seven days before moving on to another area.[69] In 2015, the city was spending roughly $100 million a year on homelessness with approximately half of this funding going to policing the homeless population.[70] Proposition HHH was approved by voters 77% to 23% in 2016. This was a $1.2 billion bond measure to build permanent supportive housing for homeless people and people at risk of becoming homeless.[71][72][73][74][75] Rising rent and relatively few laws protecting tenants from predatory landlords are significant drivers of surging homelessness in Los Angeles.[76][77]

A sprawling homeless encampment in West Los Angeles, 2022

City of Santa Monica

Santa Monica experienced a 19% decrease in the number of homeless people downtown, with a 3% increase in overall homelessness in 2019. Positive results are credited to outreach and engagement strategies and to prioritizing homelessness.[78][62] Rising homeless numbers are attributed to the Los Angeles housing crisis.[79] Santa Monica has approximately 400 emergency shelter beds across 330 permanent supportive housing (PSH) units, and provides an access center for showering, mail, and medical assistance.[79]

Orange County

The 2019 Orange County Point in Time count documented 6,860 homeless people. Per the count, 2,899 of them had found some type of shelter, while 3,961 had no shelter. The Point in Time count is a federally required biennial census of homeless people to collect demographic data and other information and to determine how much federal funding Orange County will receive to address homelessness issues.[80]

A 2017 census in Orange County, California recorded 4,792 homeless people.[81] 193 homeless people died in 2017, with drug overdoses and suicides being the leading causes of death.[82]

San Diego

A 2023 count showed 10,203 homeless people throughout San Diego County according to the volunteer organization WeAllCount which conducts an annual Point-in-Time count, a 14% increase from 2022.[83] Veterans make up a significant portion of this population, with 814 homeless veterans. This was a 17% increase from the 2022 count.[84]

A Hepatitis A outbreak in November 2017 resulted in a declaration of a health emergency, which affected the homeless population due to inadequate sanitation.[85] In response to the health crisis, San Diego opened three emergency shelters which are expected to cost $12.9 million per year to operate.[86] The city approved a 500-bin storage center for homeless people to store their belongings.[87] San Diego has a history of insufficient healthcare provided to the homeless population, with a majority of homeless people in 1989 lacking any regular access to healthcare.[88]

The city of San Diego's homeless population has fallen in recent years, but is the 6th largest in the United States with 4,801 people homeless in 2022.[89] The large count of homeless people is juxtaposed with the existence of over 30,000 vacant housing units.[90] San Diego has taken action to alleviate the homeless population living on the streets by encouraging housing within vehicles. In February 2019, San Diego repealed a long-standing law which made living within vehicles illegal.[91] This came two years after the construction of a parking lot designed to provide safe residence for people who live in their cars, complete with restroom and shower facilities.[92] The City of San Diego currently has 2,040 emergency and bridge shelters for homeless people, providing temporary housing options.[93] The City of San Diego adopted a "Housing First" program in 2018, which plans to spend $79.7 million for programs assisting homeless people[94] including temporary housing development, permanent housing development, rent assistance, and incentives for landlords to rent to homeless people.

During a criminal trial in 1990, San Diego police officers and supervisors testified that they routinely "cleared" downtown streets of "transients" by rounding them up before dawn and moving them to other jurisdictions such as National City or other unincorporated areas in the county.[95]

In June 2023, the city of San Diego passed a ban on public camping. Enforcement of the new ordinance went into effect in late July.[96] The ordinance creates a new "3 strike" system in which a person is first informed about the new law and given information for other services, then issued a misdemeanor on their second offence, and on their third offence can be arrested.[97] While enforcement of the policy is contingent on availability of shelter space, police may issue citations to those encamped close to schools, existing shelters, along train and trolley lines, and in public spaces in which encampment may create a public health risk at any time regardless of shelter space.[97] To address the lack of shelter beds, the city is creating two "safe sleeping" lots at Balboa Park's B street lot and parking lot O.[98] The 136 tent and 400 tent sites can house people per-tent and, at full capacity, can accommodate between 516 and 1032 people. The sites provide their own tents as well as bathrooms, showers, meals, assistance to additional housing services, and 24-hour security.[99] Residence may also bring domestic pets such as cats and dogs.

Sacramento

In August 2019, the city of Sacramento filed a lawsuit against seven transients accused of theft, drugs, assaults, and having weapons. The lawsuit seeks to exclude them from the business corridor around Land Park and Curtis Park.[100]

San Francisco
Main article: Homelessness in San Francisco
A homeless camp in San Francisco, 2017

The city of San Francisco, California has a significant and visible homelessness problem. Approximately 61% of the homeless population were already living and working in San Francisco when they became homeless, indicating that a majority of people experiencing homelessness did not come to the city for its resources but rather are being priced out of their homes.[101] The city's homeless population has been estimated at 7,000–10,000 people, of which approximately 3,000–5,000 refuse shelter due to the conditions within the shelters— including violence, racism, and homophobia and transphobia. There are only 1,339 available shelter beds for the approximately 10,000 people sleeping outdoors.[102] The city spends $200 million a year on homelessness-related programs.[103] On May 3, 2004,[104] San Francisco officially began an attempt to scale back the scope of its homelessness problem by changing its strategy from cash payments to the "Care Not Cash" plan, which however has had no visible impact on reducing homelessness in the city. In 2010, a city ordinance was passed to disallow sitting and lying down on public sidewalks for most of the day.

An October 2018 report by Leilani Farha, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, said that "cruel and inhuman" conditions for homeless people in the Bay Area violate human rights, which include being denied "access to water, sanitation and health services, and other basic necessities." Farha's fact finding mission found conditions in homeless encampments rivaling the most impoverished neighborhoods in Mumbai, Delhi, and Mexico City. She urged the Bay Area to provide more affordable housing.[105]

A proposition on the Nov 2018 elections ballot (Proposition C), would apply a tax to the gross receipts of San Francisco's largest companies. The revenue from the tax would add up to $300 million a year to the city's homelessness budget (double what it is right now). It would also fund shelters, mental health services, addiction treatment, and prevention to keep people from becoming homeless.[106] It passed with 61% of the vote and was upheld as valid by the state Supreme Court.[107]

The City of San Francisco has a program called Homeward Bound, first started when Gavin Newsom was mayor.[108][109] Between 2005 and 2017, the city of San Francisco sent 10,500 homeless people out of town by bus.[110] A 2019 article in The New York Times reported that many bus ticket recipients were missing, unreachable, in jail, or homeless within a month after leaving San Francisco, and one out of eight returned to the city within a year.[108]

Santa Barbara

The rising cost of rent and property prices forced hundreds of middle-class people, including teachers, chefs, and nurses, to live out of their cars in parking lots. In 2017 a count showed 1,489 homeless people.[111] There were 44 deaths in Santa Barbara County in 2016.[112]

Ventura

A preliminary 2018 count released by the Ventura County Continuum of Care Alliance board indicated that the county's population of homeless men, women, and children was 1,299.[113] It was also reported that there was an increase of 24% for the unsheltered population.[114] Overall, in 2017, the City of Ventura experienced a double-digit increase in its homeless population from 2016[115] and 63 deaths.[116] Ventura residents have placed pressure on city leaders to do more about the growing homelessness problem.[117]

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