Homelessness In Sonoma County Is Decreasing, Preliminary Figures Show
SONOMA (CBS SF) -- Homelessness in Sonoma County is gradually declining, according to preliminary results of the January 2017 homeless count, county officials said Tuesday.
Homelessness declined in each of the four counts since 2011, and there was a two percent decline this year from the 2016 count, officials said.
This year's homeless count was eight percent less the 2015 count.
On Jan. 27, 150 volunteers and homeless guides canvassed all of Sonoma County's census tracts and found 2,835 people who were unsheltered, in shelters or in transitional housing.
Data from the 2017 count showed a 16-percent decrease in the number of homeless families in the last year and a 20-percent decrease in the number of chronically homeless people.
The number of homeless veterans was down 23 percent and the number of homeless youth decreased 20 percent from 2016.
A full homeless count report will be released in July, county spokeswoman Rebecca Wachsberg said.
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