Homelessness declines, but still up over Newsom’s two terms

We’ve got so much news in today’s WhatMatters: The latest homeless numbers, a brand new tool and the passing of an icon whose work transcended the California farmworker movement and became a worldwide symbol for human rights.

We also have some breaking news this morning. The head of California’s high-speed rail agency resigned late last night amid a scandal over travel expenses. Read more here by our Yue Stella Yu.

Let’s get into it.

The number of people sleeping on California’s streets dropped in 2026 for the second year in a row, according to preliminary data from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. 

Unsheltered homelessness — people living in tents, vehicles, abandoned buildings or other places that aren’t official shelters — fell 6.5% in January 2026 compared to January 2025. Total homelessness dropped 3.4% to an estimated 175,836 people.

Since 2024, unsheltered homelessness is down nearly 13%, and overall homelessness is down 6%. 

Still, about 24,600 more Californians are believed to be homeless today than when Newsom took office in 2019. 

Newsom credits the recent progress to his investments in homelessness programs. Since he’s taken office, he created a new program to funnel homeless funds to cities and counties ($900 million in the current budget), launched grants to help cities clean up encampments and doled out money to turn hotels into homeless housing.

• Newsom: “California is proving that homelessness is not inevitable.”

When interviewed by CalMatters earlier this year, officials in counties that were making progress on homelessness said it was because of those new state funds. 

But advocates also cautioned that those numbers may not be as rosy as they seem. Cities have ramped up enforcement against unhoused people in recent years, causing people to scatter from encampments and become harder to count. And recent federal cuts to Medi-Cal and social services will make it more challenging to fight homelessness. 

The data Newsom cited comes from the federally mandated point-in-time count that tallies the number of people sleeping outside and in shelters in each county. Some counties count every January, while some count every other January. 

The data is not exact. Counties use different methodologies and may change their methods between counts. Some counties also use estimates in their counts, and volunteers tasked with tallying unhoused residents are likely to miss people resulting in an undercount.

By now you’re likely familiar with our voter guide. (If not, first off, how dare you; second, you can still check it out.) This election we rolled out a groundbreaking new feature called My Ballot, which includes nearly every race and measure in the state right down to your school board.

I spoke with CalMatters Director of Product Andrew Losowsky to learn more about the nifty tool and why he believes it’s “the most comprehensive statewide ballot lookup tool that exists.”

What were the goals you set for My Ballot before starting the project?

We knew that we wanted you to look up your address, get your ballot, then be able to make your choices. Then you could not only save it on your device, but also share it with others in a safe way. 

We don’t connect your address and your choices in any way that we can see. We believe the default should be privacy, and we want to make sure that your choices in the voting booth and your choices in this tool are private as well.

What was the biggest challenge you faced?

Figuring out all the multiple voting districts for more than 2,000 contests across the state. That required the data team to make calls to election offices in every county and to get the information about the districts and map all of those boundaries across the different races. It’s not just counties, it’s school districts, it’s Board of Equalization districts, it’s district courts. 

California officials honored Dolores Huerta, an iconic leader of the state’s farmworkers rights movement, after a family spokesperson announced her passing Wednesday. She was 96.

As CalMatters’ Nigel Duara explains, Huerta coined the United Farmer Worker motto and rallying cry, “Si, Se Puede,” or “Yes, We Can.” She was instrumental in ending the 1960s Bracero program that granted Mexican farmworkers temporary status in the U.S. while deducting food and lodging from their meager pay while also exposing them to deadly chemicals.

Each year on April 10, California honors her contributions by declaring the day as Dolores Huerta Day. Newsom told reporters Wednesday that Huerta was a legend who became “a ubiquitous part of our lives.”

• Newsom: “She had the kind of energy, she’s just jaw-dropping. 
I felt like she was never going to pass. We just have to absorb her contributions, her energy, her passions and her contribution to this world.”

Read more.

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: California’s Master Plan for Higher Education is outdated, and the academic turf war between the state’s three public college systems will continue unless policymakers do something about it. 

CalMatters contributor Jim Newton: Race or differences related to immigration, assimilation or cultural hegemony, often shape Los Angeles’ mayoral campaigns — but this year the theater of identity politics has been largely absent.

Judge rejects Trump administration bid to set aside California ballots // CalMatters (free)

Former staffer sues Assemblymember Ávila Farías, alleging retaliation and discrimination // CalMatters (free)

The pro-Trump prosecutor trying to stop CA ballots from being counted // The Guardian (free)

As election nears, reports of an increase in ICE arrests across CA // The New York Times (gift link)

ICE releases some detainees in Fresno far from home under ‘cruel’ tactic, officials say // The Fresno Bee (paywall)

Prop. 45 would sideline dozens of tribes from input on major CA projects // Los Angeles TImes (paywall)

CA’s new AI ‘bossware’ laws are about to take effect. Are employers ready? // KQED (free)

MacArthur Park is one of LA’s deadliest places. Inside the fight to reclaim it // LAist (free)

Strike vote by security workers threatens to halt most cargo at Port of Long Beach // Long Beach Post (free)