Sacramento now has more unsheltered homeless people than San Francisco

San Francisco Chronicle / July 4, 2022

Images of San Francisco’s homelessness crisis often show its unsheltered residents living in tents crowding sidewalks or RVs lining residential streets, with national critics pointing to the city as the epitome of the crisis. But the city of Sacramento actually has more unsheltered homeless people - and a higher share of them compared to its population - than San Francisco, according to just-released data.*

Within the city limits of Sacramento, just over 5,000 unsheltered people — those living in vehicles and tents — were counted in a new homelessness report, compared to about 4,400 people in San Francisco. But with Sacramento’s population of 525,000 versus San Francisco’s 874,000, that works out to a rate of 952 per 100,000 in Sacramento versus 503 per 100,000 for San Francisco. The total homeless count in the city of Sacramento was not available.

SNIP

In Sacramento County, overall homelessness, including people who are sheltered and unsheltered, increased 67% since 2019 to about 9,278 individuals in 2022. In San Francisco, those numbers dropped 3.5%, to 7,754. Sacramento County’s population - 1.6 million - is larger than San Francisco’s.

Sacramento County isn’t the only Northern California county that leapfrogged past San Francisco in terms of its homeless population. Alameda County, which saw a 22% jump in its homeless population to 9,747 out of 1.7 million people, was also ahead of San Francisco. But Sacramento was long seen as a more affordable place than the Bay Area and without the same acute level of homelessness.

MORE (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sacramento-homeless-population-17280421.php

*Just released data link: https://sacramentostepsforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PIT-Report-2022.pdf

More from the link: In Sacramento County, median rent for a one-bedroom rose 30% - from $1,005 in January 2019 to $1,302 in January 2022 - according to real estate listings website Apartment List. Experts say housing costs are the major driver of homelessness.