Sonoma County Unhoused Decreases by 22% in 2023, largest decrease in Bay Area
A year after Sonoma County documented an alarming rise in local homelessness, especially among chronically unhoused people, new figures released Thursday showed a dramatic 22% drop in the number of homeless people.
Officials attributed the sharp reversal, in part, to a surge of spending on emergency housing, including former hotels repurposed during the pandemic to transition homeless people into permanent homes.
The reversal also includes the number of people who are chronically homeless — those who have been continuously homeless for one year or more and/or those who have become homeless on four or more occasions within the past three years.
Last year, that population was up by 43% over the previous count in 2020, to 726 people. This year, the point-in-time count in January showed it had decreased by 24%, to 550 people.
Overall, the number of homeless people in Sonoma County — both unsheltered, including in motor vehicles, and those living in emergency shelters or transitional housing — dropped from 2,893 to 2,266. That is the largest single-year drop since 2015, when there was a 27% drop.
“Last year’s news was not good,” said Chris Coursey, chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. “This year, it’s kind of amazingly positive news.”
According to the 2023 Point-in-Time Count, Sonoma County had 2,266 people experiencing homelessness in 2023. This is a 22% decrease from 2022, when 2,893 people were counted. This is the largest year-over-year decrease since 2015, when homelessness decreased by 27%.
In 2023, 57% of people experiencing homelessness in Sonoma County were unsheltered, down from 72% in 2022. The number of homeless youth also decreased from 530 to 294, while the number of families experiencing homelessness increased from 48 in 2022 to 62 in 2023. However, 207 of those families are sheltered, which is a 22% increase from 2022