How big is California’s homelessness crisis? Inside the massive, statewide effort to find out

by By Marisa Kendall, CalMatters
^{cover photo: Deidra Perry, program financial manager for Alameda County Healthcare for the Homeless, takes part in Alameda County’s 2024 point-in-time count in Berkeley, Jan. 25, 2024. The PIT count, which included a voluntary survey, gathers data on the county’s homeless population. Photo by Loren Elliott for CalMatters}

Thousands of volunteers fanned out across California this week, peering down alleyways, into parked cars and along creek beds in a mass effort to count the state’s homeless population.