What county-level differences exist in California homelessness rates and which counties have the highest percentages?
Executive summary
California’s homelessness crisis is both the largest in absolute terms and sharply uneven at the county level: a handful of large urban counties account for most people experiencing homelessness, while some smaller and rural counties show the highest shares who are unsheltered on a per-capita basis [1] [2] [3]. Point‑in‑time (PIT) counts put the state’s total near 187,000 in January 2024, but the pattern across counties is shaped by population density, housing costs, and differences in counting methods that complicate direct comparisons [2] [4].
1. The statewide picture: scale, concentration, and headline numbers
California’s homeless population is the largest in the United States — roughly 187,000 people in the 2024 HUD-linked counts — and over 70% of those people were concentrated in the 10 Continuums of Care (CoCs) with the largest homeless populations, underscoring a heavy geographic concentration in a few counties and metro areas [1] [2]. Los Angeles County alone houses a disproportionately large share of the state total — cited as more than 40% of unhoused Californians and tens of thousands of people in county counts — making it the single epicenter by raw numbers [5] [6].
2. Which counties have the highest numbers — big urban centers dominate
By headcount, the largest counties are Los Angeles (tens of thousands), followed by major Bay Area and Southern California CoCs such as San Francisco and San Diego; San Francisco’s street and shelter population is measured in the thousands (about 8,000 cited in reporting) and Los Angeles is commonly reported as having well over 70,000 unhoused residents in recent local tallies [6] [5]. State and policy analyses emphasize that over 70% of California’s unhoused people live in a small set of large CoCs, so raw totals are heavily skewed toward populous metros [2].
3. Which counties have the highest percentages or unsheltered shares — rural and certain cities stand out
When the metric shifts to rates and unsheltered shares, different counties emerge: many California CoCs report unsheltered shares above 70%, and specific places like Oakland and San Francisco rank among the highest percentages of unsheltered homelessness in the state [3]. Some small or rural CoCs show extreme unsheltered shares — Tehama County was reported with a 99% unsheltered share for individuals in one dataset, and Imperial County reported a 99% unsheltered rate for veterans in its CoC — illustrating that per‑capita or categorical rates can expose intense local variation that raw counts mask [3].
4. Drivers that produce county differences: housing costs, supply, and local practices
Scholarly and policy reporting links county variation primarily to housing market dynamics — high rents, low vacancy, and inadequate affordable housing supply — which push up both urban counts and per‑capita rates in expensive areas, while rural counties can show high unsheltered shares because services and shelters are scarcer [2] [7] [5]. Local policy choices, resource availability from CoCs and state programs like Homekey, and enforcement or encampment‑resolution practices also shape whether people are recorded as sheltered or unsheltered and where they appear in the counts [8] [2].
5. Data limits and how they matter for county comparisons
Comparisons across counties are constrained by the PIT methodology and inconsistent counting schedules: many counties count shelter populations annually but conduct street counts only every other year, and some CoCs skipped components in certain years, producing undercounts and making year‑to‑year or county‑to‑county comparisons unreliable without careful adjustment [4] [2]. Analysts warn that PIT remains one of the few consistent lenses available, but it undercounts transient and hidden homelessness and is sensitive to local methodology and volunteer capacity [2] [4].
6. Bottom line for readers and policymakers
The clearest county‑level takeaway is dual: Los Angeles County dominates in absolute numbers, while smaller or specific urban CoCs like San Francisco and Oakland and some rural counties such as Tehama or Imperial show the highest unsheltered percentages or category‑specific extremes; addressing the crisis requires both metropolitan housing supply interventions and tailored local responses where unsheltered shares are extreme, all while recognizing the substantial measurement limits of PIT counts that guide funding and policy decisions [5] [3] [4].