‘Overall, it’s not good.’ Merced County reports its highest homeless spike in years
Merced County homelessness not only grew between 2020 and 2021 — it also saw the sharpest increase in recent years, according to the latest count.
The county’s number of unhoused residents grew by 31% since 2020 from 636 people to 835 in January.
The 199-person increase represents the largest spike in the last five years, during which the previous high was a 94-person increase. Merced County homelessness has risen by 84% since 2017, according to the point-in-time count report.
“That’s a pretty steep climb,” said John Ceccoli, deputy director of the county Human Services Agency. “When you see a number like this, it’s hard not to get a little crestfallen.”
The point-in-time count is required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for jurisdictions to receive funding for homeless services.
The report is released by the Merced City and County Continuum of Care, which represents the coordinated efforts between the county, its cities and community partners to address homelessness. Point-in-time tallies are done by community volunteers.
Merced County’s 2021 count included 380 sheltered and 455 unsheltered homeless residents. Sheltered persons live in emergency or transitional housing, while unsheltered individuals live in places not designed or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping location.
While the county’s 18% year-over increase of sheltered homeless residents was a positive sign, the accompanying 45% growth among unsheltered individuals dampened that success, local officials said.
“Overall, it’s not good,” said Merced Mayor Matt Serratto, who also serves as the Continuum of Care’s chairman. “The rising unsheltered count is pretty alarming.”
The City of Merced accounted for the majority of the local homeless population at 482 people, representing 58% of the county’s total number of homeless people. The city is also home to 49% of local unsheltered homeless and 67% of sheltered individuals.
While all increases in homelessness are troubling, Merced’s growth over the last two years was a relatively minor increase, Serratto said. The city also gained more sheltered (43) than unsheltered (20) individuals, he noted.
Los Banos ranked second in numbers of homeless people, but first in percent growth. The city’s 169 unhoused residents account for 20% of the county’s total. However, since 2019 — the last time a local region-by-region breakdown of homeless residents was completed — Los Banos’ count has spiked by 172%, according to the report.
“That was fairly striking to see that big of an increase,” Ceccoli said.
Los Banos homeless residents tallied 62 in 2019 and grew to 169 as of January — an increase of 107 individuals. In contrast, the county’s most populous City of Merced only grew by 15% (63 people) in that same period.
County Supervisor Scott Silveira, whose district encompasses Los Banos, said several factors led to the accuracy of this year’s point-in-time count improving compared to previous tallies.
While “eye opening,” the high count is more accurate and means that Los Banos can now realistically manage homelessness, Silveira said.
An approach similar to Merced’s new low-barrier navigation center may benefit the county’s West Side, he said. The center has capacity for 75 beds and is a centralized resource for homeless support.
Los Banos and Merced together account for 78% of total homeless residents locally.
Also notable, Atwater’s unhoused individuals decreased by 64% from 146 in 2019 to 53 in January. Officials speculated that many individuals may have moved to Los Banos, Merced or other local regions that saw homelessness grow.
COVID-19 and homelessness
Although this year’s leap in numbers was significant, officials said it is not necessarily surprising.
Merced County’s Continuum of Care was one of only three statewide to undertake and complete the count this year. But anecdotally, homelessness has increased throughout the state during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said. These new challenges compounded long time statewide issues like a lack of affordable housing.
Steps like the California’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium prevented some individuals from becoming displaced. But other factors influencing homelessness, like poor mental health or lack of social support, were still exacerbated by the pandemic, officials said.
Serratto, who also serves as Chief Deputy District Attorney, said the reduction of inmates serving minor sentences at prisons and jails in order to limit the number of people confined together thus heightening the risk of COVID-19 transmission may have played a role. Early releases and citations rather than sentences may have put more people on the street that are typically imprisoned, he said.
A similar consequence was seen at homeless shelters that either temporarily closed or reduced beds, like Merced’s D Street shelter. Fewer people in shelters also meant less opportunity to transition individuals into permanent housing, Serratto said.
This year’s point-in-time count was adjusted for precautions taken against the pandemic. HUD relaxed the tally’s typical regulations. Only a visual headcount of the homeless was conducted, meaning there was no engagement with individuals to collect demographic details like gender, race or veteran-status.
Despite the changes, Ceccoli said the county becoming more proactive during the pandemic improved the count’s accuracy. COVID-19 forced the Continuum of Care’s outreach to become better than ever before in order to provide information, resources and supplies to the homeless.
The improved engagement allowed the Continuum of Care to find unhoused individuals in parts of the county that officials were previously unaware of and contributed in part to a higher but more accurate count, he said.
“I don’t think there’s a huge influx of people from out of town or out of state that are supplementing these numbers.” Ceccoli said. “The people in your community likely are there because they used to live there, or have some kind of connection.”
While impossible to predict how 2022’s count will fare, officials said a few factors are in Merced County’s favor. For one, the Continuum of Care’s improved outreach and engagement with the homeless during the pandemic will continue on as COVID-19 fades, Ceccoli said.
Another boon is the new navigation center, which opened in March after this year’s point-in-time count. The center’s 66 beds are already full. Officials hailed reaching capacity so quickly as a beacon of success.
The Merced Superior Court also kicked off a new Homeless Court program intended to get individuals into employed and into permanent housing. Plus, the City of Merced is taking a more direct part in providing support to homeless camps.
“I want to think this was the absolute worst time,” Serratto said of the count taking place in January, when new resources had yet to exist, shelters were at lower capacity and the pandemic was raging at its highest.
“I think we’re in a different world a couple months out.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
