After pandemic lull, homelessness rising again

With staggering shelter costs, aid programs ending, more poor people are finding themselves on the streets.

photo credit: Mark Gusey

The number of people managing to survive without shelter is again rising in Sonoma County, where preliminary results from a count done back in January found 2,522.

Sonoma County says the latest "Point-in-Time" census shows even more people are experiencing homelessness than last year.

"This year it rose back up 11 percent, but it's still down from 2021 and before," said Michael Gause, Ending Homelessness Program Manager at Sonoma County's health department.

Gause attributes the jump to changes in federal and state financial help, which rose with COVID and were phased out once officials declared the pandemic over.

"One thing about funding is, it's volatile. A lot of the funding that comes in is year to year, so it can go up and down. We're looking at probably less funding for a lot pf programs next year," Gause explained.

The reality for young adults may actually be worse than the stats suggest.

"SAY was still operational when we did the youth count and we had youth that were formerly homeless themselves leading it," Gause added.

He is referring to Social Advocates for Youth, a longstanding local nonprofit that shut its doors in the spring. The program had housed dozens of young people who aged out of foster care.

Overall state funding has also decreased, Gause said. It's allocated based on the number of those seeking shelter. When progress was made, there was less need, and therefore less funding.

Gause sees promise in a new, local $2 million dollar initiative. It aims to prevent homelessness by providing emergency payments to those losing their housing. It launches later this summer.

Asked what it would take to house the 2,500-plus people currently without shelter, Gause remarked, "the prevention piece but also, we need to build more housing. Whether that's permanent housing, we also need what's called interim units, at least to get off the streets into shelter in the first place," Gause said.

A more detailed report, which should flesh out the factors behind the increase, is scheduled for release in August.