Nearly one half of nation's homeless live in California, research shows

Nearly one half of the nation's homeless population in the United States lives in California, according to a new study released on Tuesday. 

The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, conducted by the University of California San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI), is the “first large-scale representative study” that uses mixed methods to examine homelessness in the state since the 1990s.

The study found that almost 50% of the country’s homeless population—including individuals that live in a car—lives in California. Similarly, about 30% of the nation’s unsheltered homeless population is found in the Golden State, making it the state with the second-largest homeless population after New York. 

To conduct the study, BHHI researchers surveyed thousands of people experiencing homelessness in the state and did in-depth interviews with about 365 participants at encampments, shelters, and community centers. 

These studies are technically hard to do,” Kushel said. “We sent teams into encampments and hard-to-reach places throughout the state. The teams had lots of training. We involved people who themselves had been homeless as our advisers and colleagues throughout.”

One of the key findings of the study was that about 90% of respondents said that the main reason they could not escape homelessness was the high cost of housing. 

"The results of the study confirm that far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing," wrote Margot Kushel, a principal investigator of the study and director at BHHI.

Another surprising finding of the study was that the state’s homeless population is growing older in age. The median age of participants was 47 years old and nearly half of the state’s homeless population was 50 years or older. However, the study found that the homeless have the “health of people in the general population in their 70s and 80s.”

“Something goes wrong, and then everything else falls apart,” said Kushel. “Everything in their life gets worse when they lose their housing: their health, their mental health, their substance use.”

According to BHHI, most of the homeless individuals they talked to are looking for jobs. "Participants were disconnected from the job market and services, but almost half were looking for work," the center said.