Sonoma County’s official homeless count held nearly steady this year — 1,951 people tallied on a single night in January, one fewer than in 2025. But a live tracking tool already counts 2,196, and county officials warn the real number will keep climbing as pandemic-era money runs out and federal cuts loom.

Of the 1,951 people counted, 853 were sheltered and 1,098 were unsheltered, according to a county news release.

Families fell sharply, from 78 last year to 42, “more in line with what we’ve seen in the past,” said Michael Gause, the county’s ending homelessness program manager.

Gause credited a new homelessness-prevention program built to catch people “right as they’re entering that reality,” before they lose housing.

The Point-in-Time count is a federally required snapshot of a single night, taken countywide each January. The federal requirement is every two years, but Sonoma County does it annually.

A more current assessment

The newer tool in the county’s arsenal, a “by-name list,” tracks people continuously — including those known to outreach workers, law enforcement and fire crews even if they have not sought services — which the county says gives a more current read.

As of about a week ago, the “by-name” list stood at 2,196, said Hunter Scott of the county’s Homelessness Services Division, “a couple hundred higher than what the Point-in-Time showed us in January.”

“There’s a feeling out there, maybe, that homelessness funds, public funds, are being mismanaged. And I think that’s a story that they’re not …”
Hunter Scott, Sonoma County Homelessness Services Division

“What that story is telling us is that we are seeing those impacts,” Scott said, citing inflation, low wages, high housing costs and HR 1, the federal tax-and-spending law he said would “devastate” communities that rely on Medi-Cal and food stamps.

Gause said the count held flat even though the county’s service partners absorbed a 17% funding cut last year.

“There’s a feeling out there, maybe, that homelessness funds, public funds, are being mismanaged,” he said. “And I think that’s a story that they’re not — that we’re being incredibly efficient, even with cuts, achieving those results.”

A fuller report, with causes and demographic detail, is expected in late July or August, Gause said.