By Sarah Ravani, San Francisco Chronicle, July 22, 2019.
Oakland’s homeless population rose 47% between 2017 and 2019, one of the biggest two-year increases of any California city, according to a one-night street count released Monday by county officials.
The jump means Oakland’s per capita homeless rate now surpasses the same figure in San Francisco and Berkeley, at a time when cities around the Bay Area and the country are struggling with a crisis driven by drug addiction, mental illness and a lack of housing.
In the count taken in January using federal guidelines, Oakland had 861 sheltered people and 3,210 unsheltered people, bringing the estimated number of homeless people to 4,071. In 2017, Oakland had 859 sheltered people and 1,902 unsheltered residents, a total of 2,761.
The spike, which shocked many at City Hall, comes despite efforts by the city to tackle the homelessness problem, including the creation of community cabins and the opening of a safe RV parking site.
“Of course, it is disappointing ... that we’ve had the highest increase, at least in the Bay Area,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “It shows that we need to do more; we need to do things differently and we need to act with a sense of urgency that is greater than anything we’ve seen in the past.”
Oakland’s homelessness rate is now 940 per 100,000 population, slightly higher than San Francisco, at 906, and Berkeley, at 898.
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