RICHMOND — Whereas homelessness charges swelled throughout most Bay Space counties throughout the pandemic, information from the most recent depend reviews that Richmond skilled the steepest spike.
Town has fewer complete homeless folks than a few of its bigger Bay Space neighbors. However the variety of unhoused people residing in Richmond has elevated an astounding 90% — to 632 in 2022 — since 2019. Town’s staggering homeless inhabitants ranked first countywide, adopted by Harmony with 436 unhoused residents.
The newly launched information emerged from the annual point-in-time depend, which is a community-wide try to establish each individual residing in a shelter, automobile, tent or different makeshift construction on one evening earlier this yr. The objective is to gauge areas with the best want so as to dole out very important funding and sources.
Contra Costa County noticed a much bigger leap than any of the 4 different core Bay Space counties — 35% increased than 2019 — after counting 3,093 unhoused folks this yr.
Damaged down by demographics, the county’s homeless inhabitants was 51% White, 32% Black and 24% Latinx. Practically 90% of the folks surveyed have been no less than 25 years previous, and 77% had lived within the county for greater than a decade. Moreover, 12% have been unemployed, in comparison with 3.1% throughout Contra Costa County as an entire, in accordance with census information — down from a 14.2% excessive at first of the pandemic in April 2020.
No information is out there for 2021, when COVID derailed any plans to take the point-in-time depend.
However for a metropolis of roughly 110,000 folks, Richmond’s spike is especially beautiful, particularly in comparison with the Bay Space’s largest communities. For instance, San Jose in Santa Clara County — house to greater than 1 million residents — noticed its inhabitants of unhoused folks enhance by solely 11% in comparison with 2019. After counting 7,754 homeless folks, San Francisco was the one county to see a discount — an almost 4% drop from three years prior.
Regardless of the staggering enhance, the most recent point-in-time determine for Richmond is definitely decrease than the variety of homeless residents counted prior to now, in accordance with one tally from the Richmond Police Division.
The police division reported 800 folks residing on the streets and in encampments in 2017, one yr earlier than the town formally declared a “shelter disaster” as a result of it didn't have sufficient inexpensive beds to supply unhoused folks.
Mayor Tom Butt thinks the foundation of the issue is the misguided and “ineffective” use of presidency cash to assist homeless folks, and he locations the blame on Councilmembers Gayle McLaughlin, Claudia Jimenez, Melvin Wills and Eduardo Martinez — collectively often called the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA).
He argued that insurance policies that prioritize serving to homeless encampments keep open and serviced have “frittered” the town’s cash, which is wanted to put folks in houses.
“Town council majority says that these usually are not camps; they're neighborhoods, these are residents, they've a proper to be there and we've got an obligation to make them as comfy as attainable,” Butt mentioned in an interview Tuesday. “Info spreads shortly. Richmond is seen as a spot the place, when you’re a homeless individual, the town received’t take motion to maneuver you.”
Councilmember McLaughlin mentioned that since pandemic-era eviction moratoriums have ended and inflation continues to extend on a regular basis prices, one of many metropolis’s remaining choices to stop much more folks from shedding their houses could also be to determine decrease caps on annual hire will increase, a proposal that can seem on November ballots.
Councilmember Jimenez pushed again on Butt’s criticism completely, saying that framing the difficulty as an “RPA drawback” shouldn't be solely false, but in addition ignores the town’s efforts to help county and state leaders, who're primarily tasked with resolving problems with well being and housing.
She additionally mentioned that progress is already being made; the town council voted in July to sundown the encroaching RV encampment alongside Rydin Highway by Sept. 30 — one other instance of how metropolis leaders are attempting to craft versatile housing options for homeless residents in Richmond.
“We’re attempting to work in a holistic manner and have a look at them as folks, not only a drawback,” Jimenez mentioned Tuesday. “We can't simply push folks out with out extra sources. What we’re listening to is that county providers usually are not sufficient, so if we wish to see outcomes, we have to present extra providers and help. That’s what we've got been doing.”