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• 2023 NorCal Point-in-Time Report

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Nearly 700 individuals identified as homeless in January, according to results from the annual Point-in-Time survey.

More than 33 percent higher than last year's count of 462 individuals, this year's count tallied 694 people. That accounts for 27.53 percent of the total number of homeless people in a seven-county Northern California region.

It’s a continued trend upward that identifies felony convictions as being one of the more significant barriers to finding housing for many individuals, DHHS Interim Deputy Director Jake Campbell pointed out.

High housing costs, a shortage of affordable rentals and rising prices of basic necessities like food, transportation and utilities can also explain the rising PIT numbers, Campbell told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Monday.

But Daphne Cortese-Lambert, founder of Del Norte Mission Possible, disagreed with a statement Campbell’s colleague, DHHS Housing & Services Manager Michael Coates, made at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting about more people coming into the community as transients.

“One of the questions that was actually listed (in the PIT survey) was, ‘What’s the amount of time you have lived here?’” Cortese-Lambert said. “There were very few numbers of people who were new to the area.”

Point-in-Time numbers have increased steadily since 2019, according to Coates’ presentation to county supervisors. The only exception is in 2021 when, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, surveyors only counted the sheltered population, he said.

Last year, surveyors counted 462 people who identified as homeless. The 2022 PIT count was a more accurate depiction of homelessness in Del Norte County due, in large part, to getting those who are unhoused involved in administering the survey, according to Cortese-Lambert.

This year the ambassadors Cortese-Lambert works with were able to go deeper into the homeless encampments and build better relationships, she said.

“We went to a couple new camps,” she said. “And the PIT crew really targeted on trying to get something out of Klamath because Klamath has been really unreported. The county went out and did an outreach and Mission Possible also went out and did an outreach. We worked together with the (Yurok) Tribe and we’re hoping to work more with them.”

Most of the people Del Norte Mission Possible volunteers surveyed have lived in the community for more than 10 years, Cortese-Lambert said. Some have lived in the county all their lives, she said.

According to the results, of the 694 total homeless count in Del Norte County, 532 stated they were unsheltered and 162 said they had shelter.

More than 45 percent of those that took the survey, 317 individuals, stated they were chronically homeless. Two-hundred and eleven people said they had felony convictions.

Required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Point-in-Time survey was conducted in Del Norte County on Jan. 25. The data was compiled by the NorCalContinuum of Care, a seven-county consortium that includes Del Norte, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sierra, Lassen, Plumas and Modoc counties.

According to Cortese-Lambert, who got the numbers from a more complete PIT report, 412 people surveyed said they lived in Del Norte County for more than 10 years.

Thirty-nine people said they lived in the community for six to 10 years.

Ninety-five said they lived in Del Norte for one to five years, and 57 said they’ve been in the community for less than a year, Cortese-Lambert told the Outpost.

According to Campbell, between 2019 and 2021, the percentage of people who stated in the survey that they have lived in Del Norte County for a year or less had increased. Nineteen percent of those surveyed lived in Del Norte County for less than a year in 2021, however that number has begun to decline.

Campbell noted that the most recent survey shows a little more than 8 percent of individuals counted living in their current location for less than a year.

“Reasons for individuals’ moves are not specifically asked during PIT surveys,” he said. “One area to note when looking at this length of residency data, it is representative of the NorCal Continuum of Care as a whole and not specific to Del Norte County.”

Another area of the PIT report Campbell noted was the number of homeless that had felony convictions in Del Norte County — 211 individuals. He noted that is a significant hurdle for the homeless to secure housing in Del Norte County.

“Felony convictions often result in limited job prospects because employers are reluctant to hire individuals with criminal records, and some felony convictions may disqualify individuals from accessing public housing assistance completely,” Campbell said.  Many landlords and property managers conduct background checks and having a felony on record can result in an automatic denial of a rental application.”

These new PIT numbers come as Del Norte County pursues a variety of avenues to help people navigate their way out of homelessness.

One is the Legacy — formerly the Coastal Inn & Suites motel — that became permanent supportive housing for those who were homeless. Funded through state Project Homekey dollars, the county is in the process of remodeling the facility. Currently 15 units are housing individuals, Coates told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Once construction is complete, all 30 units will house families and individuals and DHHS will provide case management.

DHHS also has a non congregate emergency shelter program, providing a hotel room to those who “would otherwise not do well out in the streets or in the woods,” Coates said. DHHS can also help with a deposit or first month’s rent for someone who’s homeless through its rapid rehousing program, he said.

Del Norte County is also waiting on word from the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency on whether it will receive Emergency Resolution Funding program dollars.
These dollars are part of a multi-agency approach to tackling homelessness, which includes establishing a navigation center that would steer clients toward an emergency shelter before they graduated to pallet homes as transitional housing.

In June, the Board of Supervisors also discussed deploying eight-to-10 tiny homes as permanent supportive housing. An ad-hoc homelessness committee has identified a 6-acre county-owned parcel on Williams Drive near the old juvenile hall as a potential location.

However, according to Cortese-Lambert, Del Norte won’t know if they’re going to get those ERF dollars until the end of the month.

“It’s looking very hopeful and that will help us do the pallet homes and I think a very small amount of it is going to the shelter,” she said.

Del Norte Mission Possible also opened a navigation center at Elk Valley and Howland Hill roads earlier this summer. This navigation center helps those who are homeless connect to medical care, behavioral health treatment, food and enters their information in the Homeless Information Management System.

“We’re able to get a lot of people to just sit down and look at what programs they’re best suited for,” she said, adding that the Del Norte Mission Possible Bus, a mobile outreach program, had been reaching up to 180 people on Thursdays. “The navigation center gives us time to have that one-on-one — how can we assist people, how can we work with case management, how can we connect them to different health agencies and how to get them help before an ambulance is called.”

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