Homelessness Moves to the Capital

Sacramento encampment (Calif Globe)

California's homelessness problem is not confined to the coastal cities.

But the city of Sacramento actually has more unsheltered homeless people — and a higher share of them compared with its population — than San Francisco, according to just-released data.

Within the city limits of Sacramento, just over 5,000 unsheltered people — those living in vehicles and tents — were counted in a new homelessness report, compared with about 4,400 people in San Francisco.

But with Sacramento’s population of 525,000 versus San Francisco’s 874,000, that works out to a rate of 952 per 100,000 in Sacramento versus 503 per 100,000 for San Francisco.

The total count of homeless people in the city of Sacramento was not available.

San Francisco has had to deal with large numbers of homeless for years, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent developing a shelter network. A major part of Sacramento's problem is due to a recent housing-price escalation resulting from people moving from the coast to the Central Valley.

IMHO, Sacramento's problems are more easily fixable because there's more land to build housing and homeless shelters, and job holders will find it easier to make a rent payment (a one bedroom costs $1,302 and $2,225 in Sacramento and San Francisco, respectively, per the Chronicle). In addition, Sacramento doesn't have the same Gordian knot of San Francisco regulations that prevent things from getting done.

Let's hope California's capital city shows us the way.