Resources: Homeless Count 2011 Findings

Policy and System Design Implications

We are seeing results where the Alameda County system of care has focused its resources, utilized best practices, and employed  innovative approaches.  Homelessness among families with children, veterans, and those living with serious mental illness are down by double-digit numbers since 2009.  The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness issued its strategic plan in 2010 calling for an end to veterans’ homelessness in five years and family homelessness within ten years.  Our progress in Alameda County puts those goals within reach.  We need to continue to invest in the strategies that have worked to rapidly house and exit these groups from our homeless system back to permanent housing that they can sustain over time.

Future planning must address how our system of care can reach and rapidly rehouse those who are unsheltered.  The substantial increase in the number of people living on the streets and in other places not meant for human habitation calls us to a serious examination of our system of care. Adults without children now represent 74% of the homeless population.  We must examine whether to target resources differently. Furthermore, we must deploy strategies to reduce lengths of stay and improve permanent housing outcomes in more of our programs, enabling us to serve more individuals who exit to permanent homes in a given time period. 

The success of our prevention and rapid rehousing program, Priority Home Partnership, even during a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty encourages us to continue supporting targeted strategies that benefit both the literally homeless and the hidden homeless. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, one lagging indicator in a poor economy is homelessness. People with housing crises use friends, family and other safety net services before becoming homeless in a shelter or on the streets.  In 2011, the estimated number of service contacts at outreach programs, drop-in centers, served meal and food pantry programs was 32,009, an increase of 19.7% over 2009.  This rise in utilization of services, predominantly food pantries, signals a new wave on the horizon of people who could become homeless and points to the need for increased funding for safety net and homelessness prevention programs to help stabilize the hidden homeless before they enter the homeless system of care.

Back to the Homeless Count 2011 Findings home