Study says this California city has highest homeless rate in US

Publish date: 2024-07-12

FRESNO, Calif. (KMPH) — Personal finance company Wallet Hub found Fresno, California, has the highest homeless rate in the nation.

Fresno leaders say the ranking isn't at all surprising.

"It just confirms what we've seen on the streets for years," said Fresno City Councilman Miguel Arias.

Arias has spent much of his time on the Fresno City Council turning run-down motels into shelters for the homeless. The temporary housing got the homeless off Fresno freeways.

Although we have helped thousands of people in the last two years, the homeless population has outgrown our ability to house individuals," Arias said.

The homeless survey by wallethub.com doesn't surprise Fresno Mission CEO Matthew Dildine, either. But he has other concerns.

People are so focused on the adult homelessness but we actually rate higher nationally on childhood homelessness. The amount of children who are in foster care or just homeless," Dildine said.

He said there is a substantial amount of homeless families in Fresno where kids have little chance of getting off the streets.

The city council recently turned down a $16 million project to create a 59-unit shelter. Dildine wants the community to become more outraged over the bureaucracy attached to government projects.

"$16 million for 59 units. I tell the mayor all the time, 'If you give me a fraction of that and don't provide prevailing wage and other red tape things on top of it, I could give you so many more units. I could provide for so many more people' and yet the state will dictate the rules," Dildine said.

Arias said other cities in Fresno County have to get involved to deal with the homeless problem.

"The homeless population in the county of Fresno has grown by 2000 a year. And the vast majority of the cities around us do not have any shelters and any housing for the homeless including the county of Fresno itself," Arias said.

Arias said too often cities in the county give homeless people one-way rides to shelters and soup kitchens in downtown Fresno, knowing they can't go back.

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