Homelessness in Contra Costa increased 18.5%, Antioch has highest of any city, increased 23.7% over 2023
The 2024 Point-in-Time Count identified 471 more people experiencing homelessness on a given night
Shows 75% have been homeless for 10 years or more
By Allen D. Payton
Homelessness in Contra Costa County increased by 471 people this past year according to the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) county staff and volunteers conducted in January. There were a total of 2,843 people experiencing homelessness on a given night in the county versus 2,372 in last year’s count. Of those amounts the unsheltered population increased 18.5% to 1,959 from 1,653 in 2023.
Each year Contra Costa Health Services’ Continuum of Care conducts the PIT, as an annual census and survey to identify the number of people experiencing homelessness in our county. It plays a crucial role in securing funding and improving our response to the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
Statistics
The report shows 69% or 1,949 of the county’s homeless residents were unsheltered while 31% or 884 were in emergency shelter beds or transitional housing, with 39% of the unsheltered either outdoors or in tents, 11% in recreational vehicles (RV’s), 14% in cars and 5% in vans. Each of this year’s total figures were increases over last year’s count of 1,653 unsheltered and 719 in shelter beds.
The cities with the most unsheltered homeless people were Antioch with 413, followed by Richmond with 388, Concord with 173, Martinez with 158 and Pittsburg with 110. Antioch’s homeless population increased from 334 in 2023 and 238 in 2020 while Richmond’s decreased by 99 from 487, Concord decreased from 241, while Martinez increased from 140 and Pittsburg also increased from 58 last year.
The report shows East County had the highest homeless population at 39%, while West County had 31% and Central County which includes the San Ramon Valley had 30% of the homeless population in the county.
The report shows 61% of the homeless were male, 38% female, and 0.6% identified as transgender or non-binary.
The racial makeup of the homeless consisted of 39% White, 33% Black, 15% Hispanic/Latino and 9% multiracial. All other races made up 5% or less.
Over half of the homeless population were aged 24-54 at 56%, while 29% were 55 and up, 7% were aged 18 to 24 and another 7% were under 18.
Under Population Characteristics, adult-only households made up the vast majority of the count at 95%, 57% were reported as chronically homeless, 5% were veterans, 15% of adults had been in foster care, and 45% of adults had spent one or more nights in jail or prison in the past year.
Under Self-Reported Health Conditions, the report shows 83% of households had at least one member with a disabling condition, 61% had a mental health condition, 59% had a substance use disorder, 49% had a chronic health condition, 49% had a physical disability, 17% were fleeing domestic violence and 1% had AIDS or HIV related illness.
The report also shows 75% had been homeless for 10 or more years, 10% from five to nine years, 11% from one to four years and 3% had been homeless for less than one year.
Under the Age First Experienced Homelessness, 52% did while age 25-49, 24% while age 18-24, 13% under age 18 and 12% at age 50 or older.
26% Increase in Shelter
The report provides some positive news that, “Contra Costa County increased temporary and permanent housing beds by 26% between 2023 and 2024” with gains in each of the five categories of Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Rapid Rehousing, Permanent Supportive Housing and Other Permanent Housing from a total of 2,833 beds in 2023 to 3,561 this year.
Richmond Received $8.6 Million State Grant
UPDATE 1: According to District 2 Supervisor Candace Andersen’s weekly newsletter issued Friday, May 31st, “Some cities that sustained or strengthened efforts to address homelessness, particularly outreach, showed significant improvement, Richmond (-99) used an $8.6 million state grant to transition nearly 100 residents of a large encampment into housing. Concord (-68) has a homeless strategic plan and well-developed services for residents experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness, including case management, housing navigation, household budgeting, and short-term rental assistance.”
Antioch wasn’t one of those cities, as the council voted last year to spend up to $2 million to lease and operate a motel to provide transitional housing.
Andersen was the only supervisor or county staff member to so far provide the information about this year’s PIT Count to the public, other than the post of the report on the County’s website, as no press release was issued by Contra Costa Health on the matter.
Questions were emailed Monday morning, June 3rd, to Contra Costa Health and H3 staff, and all five supervisors asking why the information was being suppressed, how much money did county spend last year helping homeless residents get off the street and into transitional or permanent housing and if they know how much was spent by all of the cities in the county besides the $8.6 million grant in Richmond.
UPDATE 2: In a response later that morning, Contra Costa Health spokesman Karl Fischer wrote, “Contra Costa Health does not issue a media release regarding every report it produces. Most years, we do not issue a media release regarding data results from point-in-time counts.
The PIT infographic was posted at http://cchealth.org on Tuesday evening, May 28. Several of our media partners did publish the information later in the week, because they contacted our public information office requesting it, either before or after the graphic was posted, or because they found it on the website.
We’ve received your request for public records and will respond shortly.”
To date, the Contra Costa Health public information team has issued only one press release this year.
Methodology
The 2024 PIT Count methodology followed the Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines for a “night of” observational count followed by a random sample survey to gather demographic data and homeless experience.
For more information about homeless services in the county see the Continuum of Care and the Contra Costa Health Services’ Health, Housing & Homeless Programs (H3).
Please check back later for any updates to this report.
the attachments to this post:
CCC Homeless PIT Count 2024 header
2024 PIT Unsheltered Observations
