US: California records one of the largest annual declines in homelessness: Housing Department.

***FILE FOOTAGE*** SHOTLIST SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, US (DEC. 8, 2025) 1. VARIOUS OF HOMELESS PEOPLE ON SAN FRANCISCO STREETS 2. VARIOUS SCENES OF INDIVIDUALS LIVING OUTDOORS 3. POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING AND CHECKING HOMELESS PERSON’S BAGSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, US - DEC. 8, 2025: California saw one of the biggest year-over-year declines in homelessness, according to a new report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2025, the state’s unhoused population was recorded at 181,934, reflecting a decline of nearly 3% from the previous year. That placed California among the five states with the largest reductions since 2024. Larger decreases were reported in Illinois, where homelessness fell by 44%, Hawaii with a 41% drop, Florida with an 11% decline, and New York with an 8% decrease. The figures suggest some progress for Governor Gavin Newsom, who has taken a more aggressive approach to homelessness over the past year. In May 2025, he introduced a model ordinance intended to help cities and counties respond to persistent encampments. He also announced $3.3 billion in voter-approved funding aimed at expanding housing and substance use treatment programs. Despite the decline, California and New York still had the country’s largest unsheltered homeless populations in 2025. Homelessness has remained a major issue in California politics, including the governor’s race and the Los Angeles mayoral contest. The report also found that homelessness nationwide fell for the first time since 2016, dropping 3% from 2024. The Trump administration minimized the significance of the one-year decline, instead emphasizing that homelessness has risen 27% since 2013. HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the data showed that the current “Housing First” approach had failed to substantially reduce homelessness and had contributed to crisis-level street homelessness. He said HUD was redirecting its programs toward recovery, self-sufficiency and ensuring that publicly funded benefits support American families. At the same time, the administration linked the 2025 decline to its immigration policies, saying the decrease was partly due to reductions in so-called sanctuary cities. The numbers come from the federally required point-in-time count, which records people staying in shelters or sleeping outdoors on a single night. In January 2025, the count found 745,652 people experiencing homelessness across the US. “So much of the progress reflected in the 2025 PIT Count is due to targeted housing and service resources that were available in 2024 to rehouse people, including the highly successful Emergency Housing Voucher program, and new funds to address rural and unsheltered homelessness,” the CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Ann Oliva, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has largely deprioritized these tools and worked to dismantle the very systems that drove these reductions.” Oliva pointed to the administration’s proposed cuts to permanent housing programs, which the organization found would “force at least 170,000 formerly homeless people back on the streets.”