Editor’s note: This story appears courtesy of CalMatters and was written by Marisa Kendall. It contains additional material from The Frisc staff.
Homelessness is one of the most prominent, hardest to solve, and most polarizing problems California faces today.
It’s an intensely emotional issue, but it’s also intensely political, with state and local leaders squabbling over how best to address the crisis, all while facing acute pressure from their constituents to act.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson swept aside restrictions to give local and state officials more leeway to enforce rules against sleeping outdoors.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered California agencies to clear encampments on state property, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed has promised to start “very aggressive” moves any day now as well.
Breed is running for re-election this fall. In San Francisco, homelessness in all its complexity is a core issue of the race, overlapping with debates about housing, mental health, criminal justice, and street safety.
Whether you’re listening to elected officials and their rivals debate, or hearing discussions among friends and family, you might hear rhetoric that doesn’t necessarily match reality. Here are several common myths surrounding homelessness. Let us help you separate fact from fiction, using data.
MYTH: Most unhoused people come here from somewhere else
FACT: It’s often said that people who are down on their luck move here because of the nice weather and abundant social services. But the data don’t bear that out.
Surveys consistently show that the vast majority of people who are homeless in California are from California. Most still live in the same county where they lost their housing, according to a recent large-scale survey of unhoused Californians from the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.
The survey found 90 percent of participants were living in California when they became homeless, and 75 percent lived in the same county where they were last housed.
In San Francisco, 71 percent of people surveyed in the city’s 2022 point-in-time count said they were living in SF when they became homeless. In 2019, it was 70 percent. (The full 2024 count data have not yet been released).
The point-in-time surveys have flaws and limitations. But the consistency of these data, which are borne out in other California counties as well, strongly suggest that the idea of waves of homeless people coming to take advantage of services bears little weight. Yet these assertions persist.
SF Sup. Rafael Mandelman has been skeptical for years, as highlighted in a 2022 hearing.
In a recent Chronicle interview, Mayor Breed singled out recent arrivals: “The first thing I ask people — and I’m out in the streets a lot — is how long have you been here? Where did you come from? … Most of the people I’ve met haven’t even been in San Francisco for a year. We can’t keep taking on the responsibilities of people who come from other places.”
MYTH: Everyone living on the street is addicted to drugs or mentally ill
FACT: People living on the street are more likely to experience addiction or a mental illness than the general population. But by no means do those conditions affect everyone.
While “everyone” is certainly an overstatement, the correlation is real. Even for people who hadn’t previously dealt with substance abuse or mental illness, the stress of living on the streets can lead down that path.
In UCSF’s statewide survey, 82 percent of respondents reported a period in their life where they experienced a serious mental health condition. Nearly two-thirds reported a period of regularly using illicit drugs (65 percent) or heavy drinking (62 percent).
San Francisco’s survey uses slightly different wording for its questions. In the city’s 2022 count, the number of people self-reporting “drug or alcohol abuse” was 52 percent, up from 42 percent in 2019. The number of people reporting “psychiatric or emotional conditions” was 36 percent.
When asked if these conditions were the primary cause of their homelessness, a much smaller number responded affirmatively – 12 percent for drugs or alcohol, 7 percent for mental health. (SF’s 2024 data have not been released.)
For comparison, 24 percent of people in this year’s Los Angeles County point-in-time count reported having a serious mental illness, and 27 percent reported a substance use disorder.
Those rates are far higher than the general population. Less than 4 percent of adults in California have a serious mental illness, according to the California Health Care Foundation. (Rates are higher in families with incomes below the federal poverty line, and among incarcerated people.)
Meanwhile, 9 percent of Californians met the criteria for a substance use disorder in 2021, according to the California Health Care Foundation.
It’s a key issue in San Francisco, as officials grapple with budget limitations yet acknowledge the need for more behavioral health services for unhoused people and those moving into supportive housing.
Open-air drug markets in and near the Tenderloin, with its high concentration of unhoused people and housing for the formerly homeless, add an extra layer to the debate. Mayor Breed has ordered police to arrest dealers and users alike. There have also been calls to spread homelessness services, including supportive housing, more evenly across the city, but neighborhood resistance can be fierce.
Homelessness officials and service providers say a small number of people who enter housing are disruptive – often with behavioral health issues, and complicate life for everyone else.
MYTH: Most people living on the streets are veterans
FACT: Veterans are disproportionately represented in California’s homeless population. Thanks to a major effort by the federal government, the number of California homeless vets dropped significantly from nearly 16,800 in 2011 to almost 10,400 in 2022. But the number has plateaued, and state-funded homes for unhoused vets are underused.
This year, San Francisco counted 587 homeless veterans, 7 percent of the city’s homeless population.
Now, new efforts to tackle homelessness are setting aside resources for unhoused vets. Proposition 1, a recently approved $6.4 billion bond, promises to create 4,350 new homes for unhoused people who need mental health and addiction services, with about half of those homes reserved for veterans.
in UCSF’s California, 6 percent reported serving in the military. Of those who served, just 19 percnt reported receiving benefits from the Veterans Administration.
MYTH: People who are homeless don’t work, and don’t want to work
FACT: Some people who don’t have a home still hold down one or more jobs, while others are trying to find work.
In San Francisco, 17 percent of homeless residents surveyed during the 2022 point-in-time count were working, while 32 percent were unemployed and looking for work, 32 percent weren’t looking for work, and 20 percent were unable to work.
Job loss also contributed to many people’s situations: 21 percent surveyed in 2022 reported that losing their job drove them into homelessness.
The Frisc and others have reported that among the dozens of people living in vehicles near San Francisco State University are many workers and students, including Latino families.
They are being displaced by road work this summer. The city promised three years ago to find a safe parking site for them on the west side of town, with no results.
SF’s data line up with the UCSF state survey, in which 18 percent reported earning income from a job (either formal employment or informal/gig work) in the past month. When the researchers eliminated from the data people older than 62 or with mental or physical disabilities, the percentage was higher — 25 percent reported working in the past month.
But even if people are working, they aren’t making enough to afford rent. Fast food workers, for example, make a median wage of $17.32 an hour in California, but they’d need to make more than twice that to rent a one-bedroom home, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Of everyone surveyed by UCSF, 44 percent said they were looking for work. Others made ends meet in other ways; 40 percent reported earning income from recycling or odd jobs.
In San Francisco, 23 percent of those without work said in 2022 that drugs and alcohol were a barrier to finding employment. Other factors were no phone, no permanent address or identification, and not wanting to work.
MYTH: People who are homeless don’t want shelter or housing
FACT: City leaders sometimes label homeless residents as “service-resistant” if they refuse shelter or other services. But outreach workers say the reality is much more complicated.
This is a key contention right now. This year’s Supreme Court decision nullified a lower court ruling that forbade San Francisco officials from clearing homeless camps without first offering shelter. Officials have contended that many people refuse shelter.
“A lot of people want to go inside, but they also want to be met halfway,” said Shaunn Cartwright, who has worked with homeless communities in San Jose for years. “Why would I go into a tiny home if I’m only going to be thrown out later [or] if there’s no housing after?”
Other people on the streets have severe post traumatic stress disorder, or other mental health conditions, and can’t live in a barracks-style shelter where dozens of people sleep side-by-side on cots, Cartwright said. Many shelters also prohibit pets, won’t let couples bunk together, or don’t have room for people to store their belongings. All of those restrictions deter many people from accepting placement.
San Francisco has begun moving some people directly from the street into permanent homes, not shelters. The fast-track program, first reported by The Frisc last year, lets potential residents bypass waitlists with a limited choice of apartments that have sat empty.
The steady trickle of move-ins – six to eight people a month, as of March – is a tiny fraction of the thousands of people living on SF streets. As of that report, only one person had moved out, and the program’s sole housing provider called it successful. She also acknowledged that providing for people coming straight off the streets was “taxing” for her staff.
Data suggests that when people are offered shelter that meets their needs, they are likely to accept it. The wide use of California’s Project Roomkey program, which opened hotels and motels during the pandemic, shows people will come inside given the right conditions, Nichole Fiore of research firm Abt Global, who co-authored a study of the program, told CalMatters in May.
Fiore said people who had refused shelter in the past were willing to try Roomkey: “People will come indoors if they are offered autonomy, safety, privacy, if they’re able to keep their partners, their pets, their possessions.”