HISTORIC TURNAROUND: California’s unsheltered homelessness drops for second consecutive year under Governor Newsom
These preliminary 2026 results include updated unsheltered counts from the 37 local reporting regions, known as Continuums of Care, that participated in this year’s unsheltered Point-In-Time count.
As Governor Newsom did earlier this year with 2025 data, the state is announcing its preliminary 2026 results before the federal government releases its national 2026 Point-in-Time findings. Earlier this year, Trump officials finally confirmed the state’s 2025 reductions in unsheltered homelessness — months after the federal government would normally announce them.
California is leading with results
The 37 regions reporting new unsheltered counts accounted for nearly 90% of California’s reported unsheltered population in 2025. Within those 37 regions, unsheltered homelessness declined 7.3% compared with their most recent prior counts, conducted in 2024 or 2025.
Across all 44 regions statewide, preliminary estimates show unsheltered homelessness down 6.5% and total homelessness down 3.4% compared with reported 2025 figures. To estimate unsheltered homelessness statewide, the analysis follows the same practice as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), combining the 37 new counts with the last reported unsheltered counts from the seven regions that did not conduct a new count this year.
California’s estimated unsheltered population is slightly below 2019 levels, when Governor Newsom took office. Over the two years from 2024 to 2026, preliminary statewide estimates show unsheltered homelessness falling 12.8% and total homelessness declining 6%.
Federal data show California outperforming the nation
The latest available nationwide comparison comes from HUD-confirmed 2025 data. Those figures show California’s unsheltered homelessness declined 6.77% in 2025, compared with a 2.88% decline nationwide. California’s numerical decline was the largest of any state, more than offsetting a slight increase across the rest of the country combined, and preliminary results show progress continued this year.
California has also significantly outperformed the nation over the longer term. From 2019 to 2025, unsheltered homelessness surged 26% nationwide, while California’s increase was just one-quarter of the national rate (6.6%) — outperforming 44 other states. And those figures don’t yet account for California’s additional reductions in 2026, which put unsheltered homelessness slightly below 2019 levels.
Reversing decades of inaction on homelessness
Governor Newsom is creating a structural and foundational model for America:
✅ Creating shelter and support — Providing funding and programs for local governments, coupled with strong accountability measures to ensure that each local government is doing its share to build housing, and create shelter and support, so that people living in encampments have a safe place to go. Through a $77 million investment from California’s cap-and-invest program, Los Angeles announced the expansion and redevelopment of the largest public housing project in the region, the Jordan Downs Project.
✅ Addressing mental health and its impact on homelessness — Ending a long-standing behavioral health bed shortfall in California by rapidly expanding community treatment centers and permanent supportive housing units. In 2024, voters approved Governor Newsom’s Proposition 1, which is transforming California’s behavioral health systems. When fully awarded, funding from Proposition 1 bonds is estimated to create at least 6,800 residential treatment beds and 26,700 outpatient treatment slots for behavioral health care.
✅ Creating new pathways for those who need the most help — Updating conservatorship laws for the first time in 50 years to include people who are unable to provide for their personal safety or necessary medical care, in addition to food, clothing, or shelter, due to either severe substance use disorder or serious mental health illness. Creating a new CARE court system that creates court-administered plans for up to 24 months for people struggling with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, often with substance use challenges.
✅ Streamlining and prioritizing building of new housing — Governor Newsom made creating more housing a state priority for the first time in history. He has signed into law groundbreaking reforms to break down systemic barriers that have stood in the way of building the housing Californians need, including broad CEQA reforms.
✅ Removing dangerous encampments — Governor Newsom has set a strong expectation for all local governments to address encampments in their communities and help connect people with support. In 2024, Governor Newsom filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court defending communities’ authority to clear encampments. After the Supreme Court affirmed local authority, Governor Newsom issued an executive order directing state entities and urging local governments to clear encampments and connect people with support, using a state-tested model that helps ensure encampments are addressed humanely and people are given adequate notice and support.
In 2025, just a year after he issued an executive order urging local governments to better address encampments, the Governor announced his SAFE Task Force to address encampments in California’s 10 largest cities. In just a few months, the task force has addressed encampments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Sacramento, and Fresno — connecting dozens of people with shelter. Since 2021, Caltrans has removed more than 19,000 encampments on state right-of-way and collected approximately 354,000 cubic yards of litter and debris.
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