Photo of a man getting keys to a home via Oakland the Oakland’s Response to Homelessness page on Oaklandca.gov
Since 2024, the homeless population in Oakland has decreased by one fifth, currently standing at 4,410, with nearly 1,000 fewer people sleeping rough in encampments or their automobiles. This number accounts for just shy of a percent of Oakland's current total population of 444,800.
This decrease comes despite Oakland deciding to close two major homeless shelters in 2025, one being an RV-safe parking lot and the other a community cabin site, as a result of budget deficits. Though this decision resulted in the loss of 200 shelter beds out of roughly 1,300 in the Town, funds from a 10-year sales tax measure voters passed in 2020 have enabled the addition of roughly 300 beds across Alameda County.
Cupid Alexander, Oakland’s new homelessness chief, noted to the San Francisco Chronicle that the Town’s decrease in homelessness owed to new investments in affordable housing and a rental assistance program. While Mr. Alexander has taken a cautiously optimistic view of the progress made, he has expressed that the Town has a long way to go.
Throughout Alameda County, over 1,300 volunteers fanned out to survey homelessness. They found that although Berkeley, Fremont, Livermore, San Leandro, Dublin, Piedmont and unincorporated parts of the county saw increases in their homeless population ranging from four percent to 100 percent, in 2026 the total number of unhoused people countywide fell to 8,201, a decline of roughly 13 percent from a total of 9,450 in 2024.
According to Jonathan Russell, Alameda County’s director of housing and homelessness services, more homeless people attained housing compared to people ending up homeless during the previous fiscal year, the percentage of people returning to homelessness diminished, and more and more unhoused residents are staying in shelters rather than on the streets.
Cabin site via Oakland the Oakland’s Response to Homelessness page on Oaklandca.gov
San Francisco has also seen a decrease in homelessness overall during the same timeframe, though, in a way, not as much. Since 2024, the City's homeless population has declined by four percent to 7,973, and similar to Oakland, makes up just shy of a percent of its total population of 826,000 people.
According to Mayor Daniel Lurie, many people living in tents or on the sidewalks moved indoors into homeless shelters, treatment centers and other facilities. He has also stated that the number of people living in tents had dropped 85 percent since 2024.
Whereas Alameda County relied upon rental assistance programs and affordable housing and relocated homeless people in Oakland to shelters in other parts of the county, Mayor Lurie has taken a somewhat different approach. Although his administration was responsible for numerous police sweeps of homeless encampments, in November 2025, he announced plans to designate a vacant city-owned building at 444 6th Street as a Rapid Enforcement, Support, Evaluation, and Triage (RESET) Center, where people who have been arrested for public drug use and/or intoxication can sober up and be connected with treatment as an alternative to being put in a hospital or jail. He also has required drug addicts to undergo counseling in exchange for clean drug supplies such as sterile injection outfits.
So how do two different cities and two different counties attain similar general results battling homelessness through different methods? Could it be that differences in size and population density correlate to the intensity and difficulty of the broader problem? Does this inform which solution works best?
Perhaps it does. It's probably easier to build affordable housing where there is a little more leg room.
