Homelessness is on the rise in Placer County. Will COVID-19 closings make it even worse?

California’s homeless crisis, long a fixture of the state’s urban centers, is spreading more and more into rural and suburban communities.

In El Dorado County, a count last year found more than 600 homeless individuals, a majority of whom were living without shelter in places such as camps, vehicles, parks, on sidewalks or under bridges. The Sierra Nevada foothill counties of Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa have seen significant jumps in their homeless populations in recent years.

And in Placer County – stretching from the suburban communities of Roseville and Rocklin to the shores of Lake Tahoe – there were 744 homeless men, women and children counted during a survey earlier this year, up 20% from 2019. Of those individuals, more than half were unsheltered and 256 adults told volunteers they were chronically homeless, meaning they had experienced four or more episodes of long-term homelessness in the past year.

Eight months into a global coronavirus pandemic that has led to state-ordered lockdowns, Placer County officials worry 2021 will bring another rise in homelessness as people hit hard by the economic downturn and record unemployment will be forced onto the streets.

“We’re holding our breath,” said Dr. Rob Oldham, director of health and human services for Placer County and the interim public health officer.

Placer County has struggled with chronic homelessness, according to a 2015 study of the issue in the county. Contrary to the common conception that many of South Placer’s homeless enter the county through the Roseville railyards, a study found less than 5% do so. In fact, the vast majority report living in Placer County at least one year before becoming homeless.

The number of homeless veterans in Placer County is growing, with homeless veterans making up 12% of those counted in 2020 compared to 9% the year before. Another 12% of those counted were under the age of 18. An estimated 35% of those surveyed had a “serious mental illness,” according to the report.

Keith Deiderich, CEO of the Gathering Inn, Placer County’s largest homeless service provider, said the jump in numbers may be a reflection of better data keeping and more resources being available. Other counties, including Sacramento, have also said they have improved their methodology for assessing their homeless populations.

“I think in Placer County we’re just getting better at counting,” Deiderich said. “So we had more resources available and more people in the field in 2020 versus 2019.”

Diederich also said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Martin vs. City of Boise — which blocked law enforcement from punishing people for sleeping on sidewalks or public property when there aren’t enough shelter beds or housing — made homeless individuals less inclined to hide from the count.

“I’m not saying though that homelessness hasn’t increased,” he said. “I think (Placer County) probably had an increase in homelessness, although I don’t think it’s necessarily a 20% increase.”

Homeless services a challenge in Placer

Placer County’s varied geography, from densely-populated South Placer to remote mountainous terrain, makes administering services challenging.

As the report in 2015 noted, “Roseville, Auburn and Northeast County have very different issues and will need different solutions.” The report acknowledged that mobility between the three distinct parts of the county was limited and that the homeless populations in Roseville, Auburn and North Lake Tahoe often do not co-mingle, meaning the county needed to implement a “three-part geographical solution.”

And the county has done that to an extent, with emergency shelters and supportive housing in Roseville and Auburn and warming shelters in North Lake Tahoe during extreme weather.

The Gathering Inn, with locations in Roseville and Auburn, serves nearly 200 homeless individuals every night through emergency shelters where homeless individuals can be connected with other resources such as life skills classes, drug and alcohol recovery meetings, medical care and supportive housing.

During the pandemic, the Gathering Inn has expanded to two 50-bed buildings in Roseville to better accommodate social distancing and public health guidelines.

Additionally, under Project Roomkey, a statewide program to house homeless individuals at greater risk for COVID-19 in hotel rooms, the county has sheltered another 95 people. This month, the county’s Board of Supervisors authorized the $1.5 million purchase of a 14-room motel in King’s Beach to convert to permanent supportive housing for the region’s homeless.

However, despite these augmentations, providers and public health officials anticipate an increase in the homeless population in the coming months as a result of the cold weather and economic fallout of restrictions designed to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m expecting to see a pretty big increase in homelessness in 2021 over 2020, and a lot of that would be due to economic issues versus mental health and substance abuse issues,” Diederich said.

Placer County’s top doctor worries for 2021, too.

“In some ways things have gotten better; at least there’s more resources and we probably have more capacity than we’ve had for a long time. But certainly we’re hearing in some of our programs that there are more people with mental health challenges and substance abuse challenges ... more domestic violence,” said Oldham, the interim public health officer. “So the things that result in homelessness are up.”

Job losses could be another driver. Placer County’s unemployment rate stood at 7.1% by the end of September, lower than both the statewide rate and the rate in Sacramento County. But that figure represents a large increase over the same time last year, when Placer’s unemployment rate was 2.6%.

“With the job loss, we’re worried about more people at risk of homelessness,” Oldham said.