Contra Costa County Data on Homelessness and Finalizes Housing Element

Homelessness and housing affordability are two of the biggest challenges facing every community in the Bay Area, and this week, Contra Costa County released new homelessness data and voted to submit its housing element for state approval.

Here are highlights from the 2023 Point-in-Time (PIT) Homeless Count, with data collected on a January morning and supplemented by later, more in-depth surveys:

• 2,372 people were experiencing homelessness across Contra Costa County on that morning in January, which is a 4 percent increase over 2020.
• Homelessness decreased 6 percent in East County, with Brentwood, Oakley and Pittsburg experiencing major decreases in homelessness.
• We’re seeing more children experiencing homelessness. Households with children were 5 percent of the unhoused population, which is a 12 percent increase since 2020.
• Our unhoused neighbors are, in fact, our neighbors: more than 3/4 of unsheltered individuals have lived in Contra Costa County for a decade or more.

With this data in hand, we can track our progress and identify next steps in solving the challenges of homelessness.

Also this week, my Board colleagues and I voted to send the County’s 2023-2031 Housing Element to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for final certification. The Housing Element is a crucial document that provides direction for developing housing in our unincorporated areas and making sure we allot new housing in locations where jobs and services are available. At over 450 pages, it’s a long document that details the current state of housing in relation to jobs, schools, water and more, and identifies the exact parcels throughout unincorporated Contra Costa County that could handle future housing.

What sticks out to me is the figure below, which shows nearly all of unincorporated District 3 in red, meaning that our communities are some of the furthest away from jobs. For this reason, while other parts of the county have dozens of parcels targeted for new housing, unincorporated District 3 has only six parcels specified under the new housing element.

Editors Note — here is the breakdown as reported June 14

2023 Unsheltered Observations:

• West County – 40%
• Central County – 30%
• East County – 30%

Note – Contra Costa County said cities with fewer than 5 homeless were not included

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