A tent encampment by the West Oakland BART station. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
California’s most vexing issue is also its most shameful: the large and rising number of residents who lack a safe place to call home. In a state with vast amounts of wealth, more than 160,000 of its residents sleep in shelters, cars, or on the street.
The United Nations compared the tent encampments of San Francisco to the slums of New Delhi and Mexico City. Nearly 5,000 people live in the half square mile of Los Angeles’ Skid Row. And while the problem is most acute in California’s urban centers, homelessness is now a common fixture in many of the state’s suburbs and rural towns. State and local officials have pledged billions in recent years to help, but voters remain frustrated by a lack of visible progress.
During the campaign before the Sept. 14 recall election for Gov. Gavin Newsom, his challengers wielded the state’s homelessness woes as a political cudgel, pointing to the homeless population growth of nearly 25% under Newsom. The rise hasn’t been lost on voters. A recent poll conducted by the Los Angeles Business Council Institute and the Los Angeles Times found 94% of voters consider homelessness as a serious or very serious problem.
On Jan. 7, all Republicans in the Legislature called for a special session focused on the homelessness crisis. In a letter to the governor, they say the state has spent billions but the problem is only getting worse.
“We have been wrestling with this problem for decades now, and it always seems to get worse,” Sen. Patricia Bates of Laguna Niguel said in a statement. “It’s time for real results, most of all for the countless homeless people suffering in our neighborhoods and communities. A Special Session will bring needed focus. We can, and must, do better.”
Here’s what you need to know about California’s homelessness crisis — including possible solutions.