The most recent City of Santa Cruz 2024 PIT Count Report, says numbers are improving

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) -- The most recent City of Santa Cruz 2024 PIT Count Report was released today, and according to the city, "shows significant progress in addressing homelessness in the City of Santa Cruz."

The report documented the total number of homeless in Santa Cruz County as 1,850. It also stated that 25% of the total homeless population are between the ages of 35 and 44 years old, and male-identifying homeless consist of 64% of the total population.

The report also said that 47% of homeless people identify as white and 29% identify as hispanic. Of the homeless population surveyed, 86% said that they had become homeless while living in Santa Cruz, according to the report.

Homeless individuals who have experienced living challenges for more than one year, amounted to 66% of the population, while 30% are experiencing homelessness for the first time, wrote the report.

The report also stated that 36% of those surveyed, attributed their homelessness to loosing their job, while 29% said that they were evicted.

For "special populations" groups, the report showed:

• The total number of homeless people experiencing chronic homelessness (710) has risen 110 people since 2017, but fell drastically from its total of 921 in 2022.
• Veterans experiencing homelessness has dropped to 72 people from 283 in 2017 and 332 in 2022.
• Families experiencing homelessness has dropped to 171 from 419 in 2019 and 263 in 2022.
• The unaccompanied children and young adults population has dropped from 608 homeless youth in 2019, to 194 in 2024.

The City mentioned that factors like health and governmental assistance affected the total number of homeless population in the area as well.

"There are many challenges to ending homelessness in Santa Cruz County," wrote the Santa Cruz County Housing for Health Partnership in the most recent (2024) Homelessness Point-in-Time report. "The dissemination and evaluation of this report will help the CoC, and all Santa Cruz County
members, continue to produce and refine constructive and innovative solutions to end
homelessness."

The PIT Count is the only nationwide data on both sheltered and unsheltered
homelessness. The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires
all jurisdictions receiving federal funding to provide housing and services for persons and
families experiencing homelessness to conduct a PIT Count.

The County of Santa Cruz worked in conjunction with Applied Survey Research (ASR) to
conduct the 2024 Santa Cruz County Homeless PIT Count and Survey.

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