SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – According to new data released Monday, the Bay Area's homeless population has increased in several counties since 2019, with the surprising exceptions of San Francisco and Sonoma counties.
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Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties released their homeless population estimates Monday based on one-day surveys conducted earlier this year. Overall, the Bay Area saw an 8% growth in homelessness, bringing the total to 34,636 residents in the region.
The most dramatic increase in homelessness was seen in Contra Costa County with a 34.8% rise, while San Francisco, notorious for its homelessness, reported a 3.5% decrease – and a 15% drop in unsheltered homelessness – since 2019.
In a press release, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the data tells a different – or at least more complete – story of the city.
"Some of the negative messages that you hear about the challenges that exist on our streets in San Francisco are highlighted in a way that doesn't tell a real story about the work that we actually do in San Francisco," she said in a press conference on Monday.
The COVID-19 pandemic response that sprang to life in March of 2020 allowed the city to move faster and try different things to house people, including acquiring hotel rooms and building tiny homes. Now that some of those emergency orders have been lifted, the mayor said she hopes to keep up the momentum, despite the challenges of building housing.
"It's not something we can ever let up on," she declared. "We have to not only do different things and do more, we have to be more aggressive if we want to see even more change, not just here in San Francisco, but the entire state."
Alameda County data showed a 22% increase in homelessness over 2019, including a 39% increase in people living in vehicles across the county and a 10.8% increase in overall homelessness in Oakland.
Marin County reported a 8.4% rise in homelessness and Santa Clara County reported a 3.3% rise, while Sonoma County reported a 2% decrease.
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