Unsheltered Homelessness
Seventy-eight percent of Californians experiencing homelessness live unsheltered, forced to live their private lives in public. This group faces significant health and safety risks, including exposure to infectious diseases, adverse weather conditions, and violence.
To better understand unsheltered homelessness, we examined data from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness.
This brief provides:
- A deeper look at unsheltered homelessness in California
- Actionable recommendations for policymakers and practitioners
The findings highlight the urgent need to direct existing resources to evidence-based solutions while simultaneously scaling the available resources to meet the needs.
To help jurisdictions address unsheltered homelessness, BHHI also released tools to support evidence-based encampment resolution. Our Encampment Resolution Guide and Encampment Prioritization Tool are designed to help communities balance competing issues and priorities: urgently responding to encampments and all forms of homelessness, the shortage of housing and shelter resources, and the health and safety issues that encampments can represent. However, the success of such strategies relies heavily on sufficient housing and shelter resources. Communities, particularly in California, are challenged by the need to balance immediate responses to encampments with broader systemic reforms and resource shortages.
