Self-reported impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento, California

Figures & data

Table 1. Comparison of homelessness rates in 2019 and COVID-19 case/death rates as of October 25, 2020.

	Sacramento County	Los Angeles County	San Francisco County	California	United States
Homelessness Rate in 2019	35.9	58.7	91.1	38.3	17.3
Cumulative COVID-19 Case Rate	162.8	298.6	137.3	229.2	260.7
Cumulative COVID-19 Death Rate	3.1	7.0	1.6	4.4	6.8

Notes: All rates are per 10,000 people. Numbers of people experiencing homelessness from 2019 point-in-time counts. Total populations from U.S. Census Bureau. Cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths as of October 25, 2020, from https://usafacts.org/visualizations/coronavirus-covid-19-spread-map

Table 2. Comparison of L&F Survey with Sacramento’s point-in-time (PIT) survey of homelessness and the Household Pulse Survey (HPS) of low-income housed Californians.

	L&F Survey (Oct. 2020)	Sacramento PIT Survey of Homelessness (Jan 2019)	HPS of Low-Income Housed Californians (Oct. 2020)
Demographics
Mean Age	50	39	45
% Male	69%	62%	41%
% White ^a	30%	47%	30%
% Black ^a	31%	34%	7%
% Latina/o ^a	16%	18%	53%
% Unmarried Adults without Children	79%	73%	44%
Conditions Related to Homelessness
% Lived in Sacramento at least One Year	93%	90%
% Unsheltered	78%	70%
% Homeless at least One Year	74%	59%
% Physical or Mental Disability	53%	26%
% Severe Mental Health Condition	46%	21%
Access to Resources
% with Work for Pay	6%		32%
% Receive SNAP/CalFresh	42%		34%
% Receive Food from Community Org.^b	100%		14%
Sample Size	198	525	445
Estimated Population ^c	732	5,570	2,966,614

Notes: The main study sample is unweighted. The Sacramento PIT survey and HPS apply survey weights. “Low-income” in the HPS includes less than $25,000 for 2019 annual income, the lowest income category in the survey.

^a Unlike the L&F Survey and HPS, the PIT survey results do not differentiate Hispanic and non-Hispanic White or Black respondents.

^b The entire L&F Survey sample received free food by definition.

^c The population for the L&F Survey is the estimated number of unique individuals across all meal services during data collection (footnote 1) multiplied by the percentage of all survey respondents who identified as currently homeless. The population for the PIT Survey is the total PIT count for Sacramento County. The estimated population for low-income housed Californians is based on the author’s calculations with the 2019 American Community Survey.

Table 3. Self-reported impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in the L&F Survey, with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and sample sizes (N).

	Percent of L&F Survey	95% CI	N
COVID-19 Exposure
Believes has had COVID-19	3%	[1.4, 6.6]	198
Believes has been exposed to someone with COVID-19	11%	[7.1, 15.9]	196
Has been tested for the coronavirus	61%	[54.0, 67.7]	195
Has avoided shelters due to fear of coronavirus	27%	[21.2, 33.8]	192
Economic Impacts
Income in October much/somewhat lower than in February, 2020	33%	[26.5, 39.8]	192
Been laid off or lost a job because of the pandemic	16%	[11.5, 22.0]	193
Received a stimulus check from the federal government	45%	[38.1, 52.0]	198