Homeless

How Accurate is Our Homeless Count?

Published

5 years ago

August 30, 2019

Oakland’s Wood Street curbside community in West Oakland between West Grand Ave and 26th Street is home to many unhoused people, but no one knows exactly how many. Photo by Zack Haber.

Oakland’s population of unhoused residents may be much higher than the July Point- In-Time census that showed a 47% increase over the last count in 2017.

The total of 4,071 of homeless residents made headlines, but unhoused residents, their advocates, and those who’ve studied or participated in the PIT count see its figures as an undercount.

“The PIT count is not designed to be a comprehensive analysis of the homeless population,” said Margaretta Lin, executive director of the Dellums institute and a former Oakland Deputy City Administrator. “But because it’s the only good number we have on homelessness, that number sticks in the public’s imagination.”

The PIT count has been performed every two years in Oakland since The Department of Housing and Urban Development mandated the count for all communities that receive federal funding for homelessness.

The vast majority of PIT totals come from volunteers individually counting homeless people during about three hours on one day. In Oakland, that day is January 30th, early in the morning in the middle of winter, a time when unhoused people who can find temporary shelter would be most likely to.

Alastair Boone, who participated in 2019’s PIT count and wrote about the experience in an article for CityLab, reported that about 600 volunteers and 150 guides participated in the count. She worked with one other volunteer and one guide to search through a residential area in East Oakland but she didn’t find a single homeless person.

While she attributes her inability to find homeless people in the area to the fact that she was in a relatively wealthy neighborhood, she also thinks she missed people.

“We…probably missed people who were hidden from view,” said Boone, “they were in alcoves or cars, or in the homes and apartments of friends and relatives, sleeping on couches and floors.”

The discrepancy between the total PIT count increases of unsheltered and temporarily sheltered residents also suggests that temporarily sheltered residents are especially undercounted. While PIT’s count of unsheltered homeless residents increased 59% from 3,210 to 4,071 between the 2017 and 2019 counts, its counts of sheltered homeless residents in those years remained almost exactly the same. In 2017 PIT’s total temporarily sheltered homeless count was 859; in 2019 it was 861.

According to a 2017 report by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP), since PIT counts use the amount of filled beds in homeless shelters to measure its count of sheltered homeless residents, they can’t do an accurate measure in areas like Oakland where beds at shelters are generally filled to capacity.

“The count of sheltered homeless individuals indicates a city’s supply of shelter beds rather than the demand for shelter or housing” the NLCHP report reads.

Since the PIT count generally uses the same methodology, Margaretta Lin thinks it can be effective to measure trends and fluctuations in homeless population but she also feels more studies and alternate methods of counting should be used to get a more accurate count.

She pointed out that a 2014-2015 study conducted by Alameda County’s Healthcare for the Homeless (ACHCH) found that 18,000 people were homeless while the 2015 PIT summary counted just 4,040.

ACHCH’s count was determined by measuring how many homeless people used county services instead of counting homeless people on one day.

James Vann of the Homeless Advocacy Working Group (HAWG) says the organization estimates Oakland’s current homeless population at between 9,000 and 11,000. HAWG has identified 92 encampments, which they define as any group of four or more people living together unhoused, and does regular counts at them.

“Our count is a real increase from two years ago,” Vann said, “when we counted between 40 and 45 encampments.”

Zack Haber

Posts by Zack Haber

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 15 – 21, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May May 15 – 21, 2024

Published

9 hours ago

May 17, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of May 8 – 14, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May May 8 – 14, 2024

Published

1 week ago

May 10, 2024

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Bay Area

Mayor London Breed: State Awards San Francisco Over $37M for Affordable Housing

On April 30, Mayor London N. Breed announced San Francisco has been awarded more than $37.9 million in funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) as part of the State’s Multifamily Housing Program (MHP). The HCD loan will provide the final funding necessary for development of Casa Adelante – 1515 South Van Ness, a 168-unit affordable housing project located in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed (File Photo)

By Oakland Post Staff

The HCD loan will provide the final funding necessary for development of Casa Adelante – 1515 South Van Ness, a 168-unit affordable housing project located in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The new development at 1515 South Van Ness Ave. will provide 168 affordable homes to low-income families, formerly homeless families, and persons living with HIV earning between 25-80% of the San Francisco Area Median Income (AMI).

In addition, the project is anticipated to provide family-friendly amenities and ground floor community-serving commercial spaces that preserve the prevailing neighborhood character of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District.

“This funding unlocks our ability to move on building affordable housing units for families in San Francisco at a crucial time. We understand the level of need for more housing that is accessible, and like the state, the city continues to face a challenging budget cycle,” said Breed. “1515 South Van Ness is a good example of what can be achieved in San Francisco when you have strong community partnerships and an unwavering commitment to deliver on critical needs for our residents.”

“From the beginning of my term as Supervisor, I have fought to bring affordable housing to 1515 South Van Ness” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “In the interim, the site has been utilized for homeless services and shelter, and I am thrilled that HCD has recognized the value of this development, and we are finally ready to break ground and bring 168 affordable homes to low income and formerly homeless families in the Mission.”

Owned and occupied by McMillan Electric Company until 2015, the City and County of San Francisco purchased 1515 South Van Ness Avenue in June 2019 with the intent of developing new affordable housing.

In November 2020, the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) released a Multi-site Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking qualified developers to build affordable housing on the site, and subsequently selected Chinatown Community Development Corporation (CCDC) and Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) in May 2021 to develop the site.

The project is expected to begin construction in winter 2025.

“A strong, long-term push by Mission advocates to make this site 100% affordable is now paying off, with 168 family units that include services and childcare. People of color communities know what they need, and we are excited to be in partnership with a team, consisting of MEDA, CCDC, and MOHCD, that listens,” said Malcolm Yeung, Executive Director at CCDC.

“We are excited to be in partnership with CCDC, yet again, and for the opportunity to develop intergenerational affordable housing in the City’s Mission District,” said Luis Granados, executive director at MEDA.

Increasing housing affordable to lower-income and vulnerable residents is a key priority in the City’s Housing Element which calls for additional funding for affordable housing production and preservation, as well as Mayor Breed’s Housing for All Executive Directive that sets out the steps the City will take to meet the bold goal of allowing for 82,000 new homes to be built over the next eight years.

Tuesday’s funding announcement emphasizes the importance of regional and state collaboration in order to reach our housing and climate goals.

“We are thrilled—not just to bring a project of this size to a community with great need — but to do so with community-based developers and their partners who understand the neighborhood and sensitivities around cultural preservation,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez.