Survey: Californians Less Concerned About Homelessness

There are still people living on streets and sidewalks throughout the state, but Californians are starting to care a little less about the issue of homelessness, according to a recent survey.

Only 37% of Californians asked in October said they were “very concerned” about homelessness — down from 58% in 2019. Another 41% of Californians surveyed this year said they were “somewhat concerned.” That’s according to a survey of 1,707 people by the Public Policy Institute of California.

And while 20% of Californians said homelessness was the state’s top issue in 2020, just 6% said so this year. The drop was most notable in the Bay Area, where 28% of residents said they were very concerned about homelessness, compared to 63% in 2019.

Even so, most Californians still regularly see evidence of the homelessness crisis in their communities. More than half said they cross paths with an unhoused individual every day, and two in 10 said they do so every few days.

This change in attitude comes amid several shifts in the state’s homeless policy landscape. A U.S. Supreme Court decision last year gave cities more freedom to penalize unhoused people for sleeping outside, followed by an increase in homelessness-related arrests and citations in cities across California.

There were more than 187,000 Californians sleeping in shelters, on the street and in other places not meant for habitation, as of the last official estimate in January 2024. This year, several California counties reported a decrease in their homeless populations, suggesting the state may finally be making progress. But experts worry upcoming funding cuts for permanent housing and other services at both the state and federal level will undermine those wins.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.