Crossing County Lines: Mobility Trends and Unsheltered Homelessness in Rural California
Homelessness is widespread throughout the United States, and in California, the problem is particularly acute. There are roughly 180,000 people experiencing homelessness across the state, 120,000 of whom are unsheltered. Resources, media, and attention often concentrate on the “Big Six” counties — Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, and San Francisco — which are home to almost 120,000 people experiencing homelessness, or roughly two-thirds of the state’s total. However, on any given night, there are still approximately 60,000 people experiencing homelessness in the rest of California, 40,000 of whom are unsheltered.
A 2023 study from UC San Francisco finds that almost a quarter of the state’s unsheltered population lived in a county different from where they were born. In other words, there are approximately 10,000 people currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness in a rural or suburban California county in which they were not last housed. This thesis aims to understand and share their stories about why they choose to live where they do.
