Unsheltered homeless on the rise in S.J. County

STOCKTON — A biannual census taken in January shows that the number of unsheltered homeless residents in San Joaquin County increased from 2015 to 2017, with Stockton bearing the most severe brunt of the problem.

Outreach workers contacted 567 unsheltered homeless men, women and children in Stockton, Lodi, Manteca and Tracy in January. Of those contacted, 311 (55 percent) were in Stockton, which is home to more than 300,000 of San Joaquin County’s 700,000 residents.

Two years ago, the same point-in-time survey contacted 535 unsheltered homeless residents in San Joaquin County. In the 2015 survey, 230 of those contacted (43 percent) were in Stockton.

“The population definitely seems to be gravitating to Stockton,” Jon Mendelson, executive director of the nonprofit organization Ready to Work, said Thursday. “There are more services here.”

Mendelson and others involved in the data collection acknowledge that the census data they produced are highly inexact and that the actual number of people living on the streets in Stockton and San Joaquin County almost certainly is greater.

“There were 70 vacant tents in the Stockton area alone that were not included in the overall count,” Mendelson said. “You can easily see we’re not counting everybody.”

The vast majority of funding to address local homelessness is allocated by San Joaquin County officials who have convened a task force on the problem.

The task force, which holds a public meeting in Stockton on the fourth Thursday each month, released a report in November stating that countywide collaboration between city governments and the Board of Supervisors is crucial in addressing the problem.

A shred of good news in the new point-in-time report is a decrease in the number of unsheltered homeless military veterans from 61 in 2016 to 32 in 2017.

“It looks like we’re doing a much better job getting veterans into the care system, which includes shelters, permanent housing and support services,” Mendelson said. “Part of the reason more veterans are using shelters is because of outreach that is being done in each major city in the county.”

More new data from the 2017 unsheltered homeless survey:

• Along with the 311 counted in Stockton, 90 unsheltered homeless residents were counted in Tracy, 88 in Lodi and 78 in Manteca.

• Two-thirds of the unsheltered homeless, 374 in all, selfreported as having been on the street for more than one year.

• Nearly one-third, or 176, reported they suffer from a mental health condition, and 253 said they have a problem with alcohol, an illegal substance, or both.

A written report by Central Valley Low Income Housing says a successful approach to the problem should include increased emergency shelter capacity; adequate permanent housing for those with extremely low income or no income; and increased support for those struggling with mental health issues, physical illnesses and addiction.

The number of sheltered homeless residents in the county actually decreased from 2016 to 2017, dropping from 1,245 to 985. But Mendelson said the decrease is deceptive because it is the result of federal funding cuts, not reduced need.

“It’s not because the people aren’t there,” Mendelson said. “It’s because the beds aren’t there."