Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – Oakland homeless increased by 9 percent over two years and overall in Alameda County the ranks are still growing. That is the truth-spin from this Alameda County press release sent to Zennie62Media. The rest is below.
Overall homelessness dropped by three percent in Alameda County, with the number of homeless residents decreasing by 11 percent from prior levels, according to the 2024 Point in Time (PIT) count results released today by Alameda County Health’s Housing and Homelessness Services (AC Health H&H) and the Alameda County Continuum of Care (CoC).
Alongside the significant drops in number of homeless residents, there was a 19 percent increase countywide in those accessing shelter, affirming that investments in interim and supportive housing have been effective in supporting people to move off the streets and into safer, more secure living conditions.
“Recent PIT count results demonstrate the effectiveness of investing in programs that work,” said Alameda County Board of Supervisors President, Nate Miley. “While we’ve made progress in some areas, there’s much more work to do. The Board, along with City and community leaders, must redouble our efforts so that all Alameda County residents can enjoy the improved quality of life that comes with reducing homelessness.”
While Alameda County’s overall homeless population has dropped, the largest city in the county, Oakland, saw its homelessness slowed. Oakland’s increase of 9 percent homeless over two years is significantly less than the trend from 2015 to 2022, when the city averaged 32 percent increases between each PIT count. The slower rate of increase demonstrates the positive impacts of ongoing coordinated efforts between the City of Oakland and Alameda County to address the crisis, as well as the need for continued investment.
“Over the past several years, we have invested heavily and strategically in addressing the conditions that lead to systemic homelessness,” said Jonathan Russell, Director of AC Heath H&H. “Now, we are starting to see the positive benefits of those targeted investments. We still have a long journey ahead, but the PIT count results show that homelessness is not an intractable challenge, so long as there are available and enduring resources and a community of committed partners willing to address the issue.”
Preliminary analysis indicates that throughout the county, homelessness dropped significantly for veterans, transition age youth, and families. These results will be finalized later this summer after accounting for the sheltered numbers, and signal the positive impacts achieved over the last three years as the County and CoC have worked to implement the Home Together Community Plan.
Centered in racial equity, the plan calls for deep investment in targeted prevention, new interim housing, new supportive housing, dedicated affordable housing, and improved systems coordination. These strategies have brought about the highest numbers of new housing placements seen in the County’s CoC in recent years.
The PIT count is a biennial endeavor that is federally mandated by the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) to count individuals and families sleeping outside, in vehicles, in emergency shelters, and transitional housing. The results are used to inform funding and policy decisions across the homelessness system of care. The last count conducted in the County took place in 2022.
The methodology was updated slightly for this year’s PIT count. A record number of volunteers, nearly 1,300, were sent to known locations where people were experiencing homelessness. Volunteers completed survey questionnaires with hundreds of unhoused persons, which will provide deeper insight to community and individual needs compared to previous counts. Additionally, each city or jurisdiction set up its own PIT Count deployment, coordinating much of the preparation and volunteer recruitment.
“We had an unprecedented level of volunteer participation in this year’s PIT count, including many individuals with lived experiences of homelessness,” said Moe Wright, co-chair of the Alameda County CoC. “As a result of their dedicated work, we were able to capture a detailed and deeply informative picture of homelessness, and unsheltered homelessness in particular, within Alameda County. We can now use that data to clearly map future planning, budgeting, and investments efforts.”
A breakdown of the initial PIT Count results, including statistics on individual cities and jurisdictions throughout Alameda County, can be found here. Additional quotes from city leaders can be found here.
Learn more about Alameda County Health at Health.AlamedaCountyCA.gov.