The Abridged version:
- Yolo County’s homeless population doubled over the last 15 years.
- Leaders say the increase is due in part to inconsistent funding, limited resources and shifting priorities at the state and federal levels.
- The latest point-in-time count showed more than 900 people experiencing homelessness in Yolo County.
The homeless population in Yolo County doubled over the last 15 years, according to county data, pushing officials to rethink how the county responds to homelessness, which has mostly fallen on individual cities to confront.
To streamline homelessness services, a collection of representatives from across the county has established a three-year plan to address the upward trend, which took off in 2017 and peaked in 2024.
As the disparate housing and homelessness organizations seek funding and resources for projects that serve the local unhoused population, leaders say that changing priorities from the state and federal government have hamstrung their response.
“There are some structural barriers that are impacting the ability to reach functional zero homelessness,” said Kerrie Covert, housing manager for Yolo County, during a presentation to Yolo County supervisors Tuesday.
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An upward trend
Despite a slight decrease in Yolo County’s homeless population reflected in this year’s point-in-time data, the count remains above 900.
In 2017, that number was below 500.
“We’ve seen significant increases of people experiencing homelessness,” health and human services director Monica Morales said.
That’s due in part rising housing costs, a shortage of affordable homes and a struggle to maintain staffing resources for homelessness response.
“Staffing is really hard in this field,” Morales said. “We’re kind of always chasing it.”
On top of that, officials said that state and federal funding priorities often change, creating uncertainty in the operation of shelters and response facilities.
“The policy shifts and the lack of consistent sustainable funding really hinders your ability to keep something going,” Morales said.
In Woodland, that has led to decreased capacity at already established shelters. Because of shifting state funding priorities away from emergency shelter and towards permanent housing, local shelters struggled for the last couple of years to provide enough staff to operate at full capacity.
“There was a point where they could only support staffing for 50-60% of their beds out there,” said Yolo County Housing Authority Director Ian Evans.
Beyond emergency shelter, the county has a shortage of available affordable housing.
Evans said that there are almost 3,000 individuals on the Yolo County Housing Authority waitlist for 431 units.
Flawed data
Even as county officials continue to work on acquiring funding and building the homelessness response system, staff said that point-in-time count data is likely undercounting the full population of people who are unhoused.
Because the count happens on one night at the end of January, it is a snapshot of the population and not a full picture.
“It’s not a comprehensive analysis or data set for us,” Supervisor Mary Vixie-Sandy said.
The county continues to rely on the point-in-time count as the best way to track fluctuations in the population over time, but the resources required to meet the need are likely more than what is reflected in the biennial report.
