The number of homeless people in Sacramento County has sharply declined, according to 2011 figures on homelessness released Friday by Sacramento Steps Forward and Sacramento County. Long-term homelessness saw the biggest decrease, with a 50 percent drop since 2007.
Despite the lasting effects of the recession locally, the numbers for both long-term homelessness and overall homelessness have fallen compared to recent years.
On any given night in Sacramento County in 2011, there are 2,358 homeless people, said Paul Lake, director of the county’s Department of Human Assistance. That’s down from 2,800 people at any night in 2009.
“I think we were all pleasantly surprised,” Lake said.
The data released Friday is based on the Jan. 27 Homeless Street Count held by Sacramento Steps Forward.
“In addition to the substantial decrease of 50.8 percent in chronic homelessness between 2007 and 2011, this year’s homeless count also found a 15.8 percent decrease in overall homelessness since 2009,” according to a fact sheet on the data released by Sacramento Steps Forward and Sacramento County.
While the overall numbers are down, the county did see an 11.2 percent rise in families that are homeless since 2009, according to the figures.
Lake credited the drop in homelessness partly to the work of the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, a partnership between local government agencies and private firms in the Sacramento County. LINK
“I was hopeful that we’d see the success of the efforts that we’ve been making in the 10-year plan,” Lake said. “I think this points out that we have achieved some success.”
Lake also said that a federal stimulus program that started in 2009, the Homeless Prevention and Rapid-Rehousing program, helped lower the number of homeless in Sacramento County.
He said about 1,600 people in Sacramento County gained housing help through that program.
The numbers, which were crunched by the MKS Consulting firm, will be used by the county’s Department of Human Assistance to maintain federal Housing and Urban Development Department funding, said Lake.
The fact sheet on the results of the homeless count says the data is based on a “statistically reliable research-based method of counting that is approved by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
Sacramento County must provide statistics on homelessness to the federal housing department every other year, according to Michele Watts, program manager for Sacramento Steps Forward.
Lake explained that the data cannot be broken down by city to show how many homeless people are in each city in the county. The data was assessed by splitting up the county into areas that have a high number of homeless people and areas that have low numbers of homeless.
Volunteers counted homeless people in 100 percent of the high-density areas, said Megan Schatz, principal consultant for MKS Consulting, the firm that analyzed the data. About two-thirds of the low-density areas were counted, she said.
Because not every portion of the low-density areas were covered in the count, there is “no way to extrapolate how many people are in a given sub-section of the county,” Lake said.
Read the fact sheet on the new results here.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
Editorial Note:
This is an updated version of an earlier story.
