Fresno, Madera homelessness rises 9.2%, point-in-time count shows 4,905

Fresno and Madera counties moved in the opposite direction of California and the nation, with homelessness rising 9.2% to 4,905 people in the latest point-in-time count. The increase gives Fresno County leaders a sharper measure of a problem that is still showing up in shelters, on sidewalks and in encampments even as the rest of the state posted a decline.

The contrast is stark. Federal homelessness data showed a 3.3% drop nationwide and a 2.8% decline in California, the state’s first decrease since 2016. In the Fresno-Madera region, officials now have to explain why the local numbers kept climbing while the broader trend improved.

The count also showed that this is not just a bed-space problem. Of the people counted, 29% reported a substance use disorder, 31% said they had a serious mental illness and 5% were younger than 18. Those figures point to a demand for more than emergency shelter, since many people in the two-county region need behavioral health care, family support and permanent housing at the same time.

Local shelter capacity remains tight. The count found more than 4,000 year-round beds across Fresno and Madera counties, but 84% were occupied on the night of the survey. That leaves little room for seasonal swings, new inflows or families trying to get off the street before conditions worsen.

The Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care said the count also has to be read in light of how it was collected. The region used a new survey-based method instead of relying only on visual tallies, and federal officials took more than a year to validate the submission. That delay means local leaders are planning with data that reflect conditions from earlier, not necessarily the streets as they look today.

Roughly 275 to 300 volunteers took part in the January count, underscoring how labor-intensive the effort is for a region that must conduct the survey during the last week of January to remain eligible for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants. The Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care says its mission is to help people move from homelessness into permanent housing and connect them with education, health, mental-health, employment and life-skills services.

Preliminary figures from the newer method showed 1,619 unsheltered people and 1,635 sheltered people, while Fresno County’s Homeless Response Data Hub tracks point-in-time counts back to 2015. Together, those numbers show a decade-long upward trajectory that local officials are still trying to reverse with more shelter, more treatment and more permanent housing.