Who are the homeless in Fresno and the Valley? The answers might surprise you
To hear Fresno’s elected officials tell it, one could be led to believe the city’s homeless population is replete with criminals, drug addicts, the mentally ill, vagrants and panhandlers, or simply dropouts from mainstream society.
But in a city with a lack of affordable housing, severe shortage of emergency homeless shelters, and unemployment and poverty rates that exceed the state average, does the reality match those characterizations?
In January 2023, there were approximately 1,800 homeless people living on the streets in the city of Fresno, plus almost 1,400 more living in short-term emergency or transitional shelters, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.
Across Fresno and Madera counties, the number of unsheltered homeless was more than 2,750, with another 1,735 people in shelters.
Throughout the central San Joaquin Valley — from Modesto and Turlock in Stanislaus County in the north to Tulare and Kings counties in the south — almost 5,200 people were living on the streets without shelter, and more than 2,900 more were in some form of homeless shelter.
“Every person is accountable for the choices they make in life,” Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld, a clinical psychologist, said in July before the City Council introduced an ordinance to ban camping by the homeless on public property. “Every one of those who choose to engage in drugs, criminal behavior, live on streets, harass business owners, (and) create unsafe and unhealthy conditions in our community must be held accountable.”
But who, exactly, are the homeless in Fresno and the Valley? Here’s what the data collected in 2023 by Continuum of Care committees in the region shows us about the unsheltered homeless by various demographics.
By age group
- Under 18: 25 of the unsheltered homeless in Fresno and Madera counties, eight in Stanislaus and Merced counties, and 52 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Ages 18 to 24: 86 in Fresno and Madera counties, 43 in Stanislaus and Merced counties, and 41 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Ages 25 to 34: 485 in Fresno and Madera counties, 289 in Stanislaus and Merced counties, and 171 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Ages 35 to 44: 693 in Fresno and Madera counties, 410 in Stanislaus and Merced counties, and 300 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Ages 45 to 54: 750 in Fresno and Madera counties, 288 in Stanislaus and Merced counties, and 262 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Ages 55 to 64: 543 in Fresno and Madera counties, 240 in Stanislaus and Merced counties, and 217 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Age 65 and older: 176 in Fresno and Madera counties, 61 in Stanislaus and Merced counties, and 46 in Tulare and Kings counties.
By gender
- Men: 1,942 of the unsheltered homeless in Fresno and Madera counties identify as male, 674 in Stanislaus County, 270 in Merced County, and 698 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Women: 803 in Fresno and Madera counties, 270 in Stanislaus County, 118 in Merced County, and 388 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Transgender: Eight in Fresno County, two in Stanislaus County, two in Merced County, and three in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Non-binary: Three in Stanislaus County, none in Fresno, Madera, Merced, Tulare and Kings counties.
By race/ethnicity
- White: 1,965 in Fresno and Madera counties, 703 in Stanislaus County, 238 in Merced County, and 815 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Black/African American: 372 in Fresno and Madera counties, 79 in Stanislaus County, 65 in Merced County, and 115 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Asian: 49 in Fresno and Madera counties, 24 in Stanislaus County, six in Merced County, and 10 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- American Indian/Alaska native/Indigenous: 238 in Fresno and Madera counties, 57 in Stanislaus County, 16 in Merced County, and 101 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 48 in Fresno and Madera counties, 22 in Stanislaus County, two in Merced County, and nine in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Multiple races: 86 in Fresno and Madera counties, 64 in Stanislaus County, 63 in Merced County, and 39 in Tulare and Kings counties.
- Latino ethnicity (of any race): 1,436 in Fresno and Madera counties, 323 in Stanislaus County, 146 in Merced County, and 550 in Tulare and Kings counties.
Veterans
- Military veterans: 170 in Fresno and Madera counties, 46 in Stanislaus County, 19 in Merced County, and 68 in Tulare and Kings counties.
The collective numbers are daunting, particularly with the realization that nearly all of the available emergency shelter beds in Fresno and the rest of the Valley are almost always full, yet are dwarfed by the homeless population who remain unsheltered.
And while Fresno’s elected officials, with their rhetoric, seem to paint the homeless population with a broad brush, they also make distinctions that not every homeless person is a drug addict or criminal.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, the city’s former police chief, said the new anti-camping ordinance is aimed at perhaps 20% to 30% of the chronically homeless who create problems or disruptions to businesses and residents.
Still, he said at a July 29 City Council meeting, “there are a lot of people out there today who do something defiant. They refuse to leave when officers ask them to. They are doing things that are intentionally disruptive to businesses.”
At the same meeting, Bredefeld acknowledged the realization that many of the homeless want help getting off the streets, overcoming addiction and seeking mental health services.
“But there are people who don’t,” he added. “And it’s a subculture and they want to be there and they want to continue the lifestyle and they have no problem intruding on other people’s rights and the health and safety of businesses and our constituents. It’s no longer acceptable.”
Councilmember Luis Chavez reflected on numerous factors that contribute to homelessness in Fresno and elsewhere.
“I don’t really just see it as necessarily a homeless problem,” Chavez said on July 29. “You have these categories where the best way to describe it is that we have a fentanyl opioid addiction problem. We have a mental health problem. We have a housing crisis problem. We have a poverty problem, and they seem to manifest themselves as a homeless problem, right?”
This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
