• Though Black residents constitute 6 percent of the nine-county Bay Area population overall, about 25 percent of all unhoused residents are Black. This disproportionality remains true for all counties in the Bay Area.
• Among all unhoused residents in the nine-county Bay Area region, Asian American residents and Pacific Islander residents have the lowest shelter rates.
• Unhoused residents who identify as transgender and unhoused residents who identify as non-binary or other have lower shelter rates compared to those who identify as male and those who identify as female.
• From 2019 to 2022, the rate of homelessness for Pacific Islander residents rose from 125 per 10,000 residents to 176 per 10,000 residents. During the same period, the rate of homelessness for Native American residents declined from 255 per 10,000 residents to 178 per 10,000 residents.

While the Bay Area has witnessed a surge in extreme wealth with the tech boom, the region also has seen a growing crisis in extreme poverty and a spike in its unhoused population. Regional income inequality has worsened over the past 40 years, as inflation-adjusted wages have declined for the bottom 40 percent of wage earners since 1980. The region-wide housing crisis also has led to rapid increases in rent in recent decades, creating a continual need for additional affordable housing. Preexisting homeless prevention and care systems have faced increasing capacity challenges with a growing unhoused population. For many, homelessness is an understandably distressing and traumatizing experience, which compounds mental and physical health crises, substance addictions, and other complex care needs among unhoused people and increases the likelihood that people will be incarcerated. A holistic approach to homelessness must address root economic causes while also supporting the existing population of people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.

• Increase region-wide production of affordable housing, such as by leveraging Low-Income Household Tax Credits.

• Increase access to affordable housing for extremely low-income households by expanding funding for, and use of, rental subsidies and Housing Choice Vouchers.

• Ensure strong tenant protections to prevent displacement, such as just cause eviction ordinances, anti-harassment policies, low-cost legal assistance, and rent control.

• Coordinate and strengthen homelessness prevention service systems across community-facing institutions (e.g., social service agencies, schools, healthcare clinics, and libraries) and carceral facilities (e.g., jails and probation centers).

• Implement land-use policies at the state and local level that facilitate the approval and development of new homeless shelters, safe car camping parks, and other programs to reduce the unsheltered population.

• Improve multilingual, trauma-informed, and non-punitive homelessness outreach services, with wraparound connections to physical and behavioral health supports for people with complex care needs.

• Expand funding for local and regional continuum of care systems — from emergency shelters to rapid re-housing to permanent supportive housing — to ensure fewer people return to homelessness after receiving support.

• Reports: Bay Area Homelessness: New Urgency, New Solutions; Solutions to Reducing Homelessness; California Statewide Study Investigates Causes and Impacts of Homelessness

• Data: Who is Homeless in the Bay Area; Homeless Populations Are Rising Around California