With economic concerns foremost in the minds of many Americans, according to the results of multiple polls, other issues may end up on the public policy back-burner as we enter the new year.

One such shift was recently highlighted in a November blog post from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), which noted that while “homelessness” continues to be a “visible and pressing issue” for Californians, intense public focus on the issue is declining.

Citing October PPIC survey results, authors Lauren Mora and Shannon McConville noted that only 37 percent of respondents termed themselves as “very concerned” about homelessness compared to 58 percent in 2019.  Similarly, while 20 percent labeled homelessness the state’s top issue in January 2020, only 6 percent did so today.

This doesn’t mean that the number of homeless individuals has declined in California. Homeless numbers actually grew by 20 percent between 2019 and 2024, though the growth rate slowed between 2023 and 2024.

As Mora and McConville point out, levels of concern with homelessness vary by income, region and age. “Lower-income Californians express higher levels of concern than higher earners. Across regions, at least four in ten residents in the Central Valley, Inland Empire, and Los Angeles say they are very concerned, compared to fewer than three in ten in the San Francisco Bay Area,” they write.

In early December, Joyce Chu, a writer for SanJose Spotlight followed up on this issue and talked with survey analyst Mora who  noted that the drop in high levels of concern could be attributed to several factors – both resident perceptions of state and local actions taken to address homelessness and more personal worries about the economy. 

“I would say it’s probably just like a mix of those two things,” Mora said. “It’s not only just the impact of the state and local programs, but also that people are way more concerned about their own situation.”

In fact, in the  PPIC’s December Statewide Survey the economy, including the cost of living and inflation, was cited as the top issue facing Californians. As to 2026, 71 percent reported that they expect the state to have bad times financially during the next 12 months.”

While an intense focus on homelessness may have dissipated, the survey shows that the personal issue of housing affordability continues to worry residents. Forty percent reported that housing cost has created a strain on themselves and their families and 65 percent cited housing affordability as a big problem for the state. (Just 4 percent said it wasn’t.) 

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