Homelessness a Growing Issue in San Francisco Suburbs

Across the nation, suburban homeless populations are growing. Many of these communities are unprepared to shelter or serve these growing populations.

1 minute read

July 3, 2017, 1:00 PM PDT

By Casey Brazeal @northandclark


Tent City Bay Area

Homeless set up tents on a sidewalk in Oakland—a familiar site all over California. | Fabrice Florin / Flickr

When a shelter in the Bay Area suburb of Antioch closed because of funding cuts and growing demand that it could not meet, some of its clients moved into a field in the city. "In suburbs across the U.S., poverty has been growing faster than in cities," Devin Katayama writes in KQED, and few communities were prepared for this trend.

"Antioch residents often talk about the lack of jobs and public transportation, but the absence of sufficient social services is a big problem, too," Katayama reports. Homeless people have moved into Antioch to avoid police that target them in other areas, and some have just ended up there by happenstance. These outlying communities can be particularly difficult to navigate.

Monday, June 26, 2017 in KQED

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