New 2023 Homeless Counts Released
Published On July 26, 2023 - 2:09 PM
Written By Ben Hensley
On Wednesday, the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC) released its Point in Time (PIT) findings of Fresno and Madera counties’ unhoused populations, revealing overall estimates of the total number of sheltered and unhoused people.
The FMCoC is a two-county continuum encompassing Fresno and Madera counties and the cities within those counties. This year’s PIT report revealed a total number of 4,493 people suffering from homelessness throughout the two counties, compared to 4,216 last year.
The PIT survey is completed annually (with the exception of 2021), gathering data based on in-person counts and extrapolated data with a goal of quantifying the total number of people suffering from homelessness.
This year’s study revealed rising numbers of unsheltered individuals within Fresno and Madera counties. The total number of sheltered individuals in Fresno County fell this year as well.
Madera County saw an increase of 186 individuals housed in temporary shelters.
“We have a very large county, so not all areas are specifically counted,” said FMCoC Chair Laura Moreno. “Out of the 67 zip codes across the jurisdictions, we had folks in 37 of those zip codes actively counting.”
This year’s count took place on Jan. 24, which saw low temperatures and rain, causing difficulty in counts due to the use of warming centers.
That night, there were 3,814 year-round beds available for those suffering homelessness, a decrease from 5,101 in 2022.
The decrease in the number of available shelter beds is partly due to the opening and conversion of several former homeless shelters into permanent housing.
“Fresno Housing Authority brought the Sun Lodge property offline. That was a 130-bed shelter facility,” said Philip Skei, Fresno’s Planning & Development assistant director. “We’re seeing the success of Project Homekey – the path that we are on to develop more permanent, supportive housing – being fulfilled.”
The number of beds available in shelters has also risen considerably since 2020, with Skei adding that from 2020-2022, the city’s temporary shelter capacity increased by 96%.
FMCoC hopes to not only quantify the number of people experiencing homelessness, but facilitate a path to exit homelessness as well.
“We do not want to exit people onto the street,” said Moreno. “The county also is in that process with the Homekey project on Blackstone that is closed for renovation. We work very hard to ensure, just like the city does when they close theirs, that we are rehousing people.”
Despite the number of persons experiencing homelessness increasing by 7%, FMCoC Vice Chair Jody Ketcheside said that Fresno and Madera counties are trending below the state average, with some communities reporting more than 20% increases to their unsheltered populations.
“What we saw was a 6.6% increase in homelessness total, which is lower than what we’re seeing trending in California,” she said. “What that tells me is we’re on the right track but we have a ton more work to do to get a handle on things. But it is a positive sign for us at the continuum that we are at least trending on the low end of what’s happening across the state.”
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer was absent from the press conference, but issued a statement to the media showing pride in Fresno’s ability to decrease homelessness through projects like Project Homekey and Sun Lodge.
“This means our strategy of transitioning those in emergency shelters into safe housing opportunities is working,” Dyer wrote. “However, we must explore other strategies to address the increase in our unsheltered population.”
A full report from the FMCoC’s Point in Time study can be found on their website.