California Home to Almost One Third of U.S. Unhoused Population

California’s population of unhoused people accounts for 30 percent of the nationwide homeless population, reports Emily Hoeven for Cal Matters, as well as 50 percent of unsheltered people in the United States. For comparison, the state is home to 12 percent of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, half of the federal emergency housing vouchers issued to the state have gone unused, “largely because of bureaucratic hurdles in certain areas such as San Francisco, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.”

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state also has the highest homelessness rate (44 people out of every 10,000) and the fastest increase in its homeless population (23.4 percent between 2007 and 2022). Nationally, the number of unhoused people remained roughly unchanged between 2020 and 2022.

Last week, new Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency over the homelessness crisis, triggering access to state and federal funding sources. As Hoeven explains, L.A. homeless advocates warn that more people could become unhoused after February 1, when “when the city is set to lift a pandemic rule that blocked landlords from evicting tenants for nonpayment of rent and other reasons.” Bass “also issued a sweeping executive order Friday that aims to significantly speed up the development of 100% affordable housing by requiring city agencies to finish reviewing applications within 60 days — instead of the typical six to nine months.”