Oakland’s unhoused population keeps growing—but the city is not experiencing anything like the explosion of homelessness that took place in the 2010s.
On Wednesday, Oakland and Alameda County released their latest homelessness tallies. These “point-in-time” counts occur every two years, mandated by the federal government for any jurisdiction that receives funding to address the crisis. The results are inexact estimates of the number of people sleeping on the street or in shelters on the single winter night, but they’re considered the most accurate statistics available.
The 2024 count found 5,490 people living without permanent housing in Oakland. This reflects a 9% increase over the previous point-in-time count in 2022, which found 5,055.
About 67% of Oakland’s unhoused residents are unsheltered, meaning they live outdoors or in vehicles instead of at shelters.
Alameda County’s overall homeless population decreased by 3% over the last two years. The number of homeless youth and veterans throughout the county dropped as well.
More detailed results, including demographic information and the findings of surveys conducted during the count, are expected to be published next month.
The county reported a “record number” of volunteers who turned out to conduct this year’s count, with more than 1,300 people hitting the streets in late January.
New housing programs and the pandemic impacted numbers
While Oakland’s homeless population has been increasing consistently for a decade, the rate at which it’s growing has been slowing for five years. Put another way, the city’s homeless population grew 47% from 2017 to 2019. Between 2019 and 2022, it grew by 24%. This latest count shows a growth rate of 9%.
“Oakland is delighted to have bent the curve for what has been a constant double-digit increase, trending ridiculously high,” Assistant City Administrator LaTonda Simmons told The Oaklandside. Simmons led Oakland’s work around homeless encampments over the past few years. While Oakland would “love to be at zero-sum,” Simmons said that the city faces unique challenges and is home to half of the county’s unhoused residents.
When the city and county’s COVID-19 eviction moratoriums ended in 2023, advocates braced for a spike in homelessness. The courts did experience an onslaught of eviction cases, but so far this doesn’t seem to have resulted in a major increase in people moving to the streets.
The pandemic also interrupted the population count. The 2021 point-in-time count was postponed a full year, delaying a clear picture of the impact of COVID-19 on homelessness locally.
But the pandemic also presented opportunities for the government to house people at a much faster clip than usual. Concerned about the spread of the virus among people living in encampments and group shelters, Alameda County moved thousands of people off the streets and into converted “Roomkey” hotels. From there, hundreds of residents were placed in permanent housing. Since 2020, Oakland has also received nine state “Homekey” awards to permanently convert other buildings into supportive housing.
Simmons also attributed the city’s slower growth rate to stronger collaboration with the county as well as Oakland’s “encampment management” work. Through city outreach workers connecting with encampment residents, “there has been an increase in enrollment of individuals and families in services and shelter programs,” she said.
Not everyone thinks the new numbers reflect progress
Many homeless residents and supporters are critical of Oakland’s approach to encampment management. The city typically closes multiple encampments a week, offering people spots in one of Oakland’s several shelter facilities. Residents frequently complain that the shelter options are insufficient and a recent audit showed that several of the sites send people back to the streets at high rates.
Talya Husbands-Hankin, an advocate for unhoused residents with Love & Justice in the Streets, said 5,490 people living without housing in Oakland is unacceptable.
“These numbers confirm that Oakland is failing to meaningfully address the crisis,” she said. “This is an emergency and people are dying in the streets.”
Oakland will face even more challenges in the next two years as it continues to try to stem the growth of homelessness. COVID-era programs are ending, and the city is facing a $177 million budget deficit.
Mayor Sheng Thao told The Oaklandside that the city’s shored up other funding to address homelessness despite the budget constraints.
In 2022, voters approved the Measure U infrastructure bond, the largest single source of affordable housing funds the city’s ever seen. In April, the state awarded Oakland $7.2 million in “encampment resolution” funds. Oakland plans to use the money to close longstanding homeless camps and move 150 people into a hotel shelter.
“Of course, we would love to see it decreasing,” said Thao about the homeless population. But she said the slower growth rate shows “our comprehensive approach to housing is working.”
The point-in-time count process changed this year. Previously, volunteers drove and walked city streets, silently tallying people they saw without approaching them. This year, they interviewed the unhoused residents they came in contact with, asking them questions about their backgrounds and experiences with homelessness. The findings from over 1,000 surveys collected will be released this summer.
In this initial release, the results for the cities surrounding Oakland were mixed. Berkeley’s population continued a downward trend, decreasing by 20% since the last count. In the city of Alameda, homelessness grew by 72%.
Piedmont apparently has only three homeless residents, a 93% drop from the previous count.
