![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/webimage-Oakland-Storm-Prep-5.jpg\")
The 2024 PIT Count found that nearly 5,500 people were living without permanent housing in Oakland. Credit: Daniel Danzig for The Oaklandside<\/p>\nThe 2024 PIT Count found that nearly 5,500 people were living without permanent housing in Oakland. Credit: Daniel Danzig for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
Every two years, hundreds of Oakland residents leave their homes before the crack of dawn and fan out across the city to look for neighbors who sleep on the streets, in parks, and on doorsteps.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the biennial Point-in-Time Count, a survey of unhoused residents in Alameda County and Oakland. The process is mandated by the federal government for cities and counties that seek financial support to address the homelessness crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The counts also produce the most accurate data available for policymakers, researchers, and community organizations trying to understand the scale and contours of the crisis and support people in need.<\/p>\n
Oakland\u2019s next PIT Count will take place Thursday, January 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city is seeking 500 volunteers to help conduct the count. Since putting the call out last week, 300 people have signed up, said city spokesperson Jean Walsh. Two hundred more people are needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not a small ask, but homelessness is not a small problem,\u201d said Mayor Barbara Lee in a press release<\/a>. \u201cTo achieve real solutions, we need data.\u201d<\/p>\n Volunteers will work in shifts between 5 a.m. and 12 p.m. on the day of the count, and will tally and survey homeless residents using a mobile app. They\u2019ll receive training ahead of the count on how to conduct the survey and stay safe.<\/p>\n Volunteers can sign up online<\/a> as individuals or as part of a group (select Oakland as your location). The city encourages private workplaces and community organizations to apply as groups.<\/p>\n The last PIT Count in 2024 yielded statistics<\/a> that were both sobering and somewhat hopeful. Homelessness in Oakland was at its highest ever: 5,485 people, two-thirds of whom were unsheltered. This number reflected a 9%<\/a> increase since 2022, despite Alameda County\u2019s overall homeless population decreasing by 3%.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, that growth rate was slow compared to the explosion in Oakland\u2019s homeless population in previous years. Between 2017 and 2019, the number of homeless people grew by 47%, and between 2019 and 2022 by 24%.\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to counting the population of homeless people, volunteers also gather important demographic information<\/a> through surveys. In 2024, the PIT Count found that more than half of the county\u2019s unhoused residents were experiencing homelessness for the first time, while 37% were considered chronically homeless. Sixty percent self-reported having a disability and 29% reported a substance use disorder.<\/p>\n In Oakland, 80% of surveyed residents said they\u2019d previously been housed in Alameda County.\u00a0<\/p>\n Racial disparities in the population were also clear: 53% of Oakland\u2019s unhoused residents are Black, compared to about 22% of the population overall. The survey also looks at reasons why people become homeless here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Conditions have changed in Oakland since the last PIT Count. Affordable housing construction has ramped up<\/a>. Some shelters have closed<\/a> while others have opened<\/a>. City leadership has turned over, and one new official is proposing a policy that could upend how Oakland addresses encampments<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of these factors and more have undoubtedly affected homelessness statistics in Oakland, and the PIT Count is a rare opportunity to try and measure the impact of those changes.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2024 PIT Count found that nearly 5,500 people were living without permanent housing in Oakland. Credit: Daniel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1493,143,145,144,61773,7597],"class_list":{"0":"post-122658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-homelessness","9":"tag-oakland","10":"tag-oakland-headlines","11":"tag-oakland-news","12":"tag-point-in-time-count","13":"tag-volunteering"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}