The United States Department of Housing and Urban development requires communities to regularly administer Point in Time (PIT) surveys to count the local unhoused population.
The survey, administered by the County and carried out by volunteers, provides a snapshot of sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on a single night in late January.
The Fresno Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC) recently released the executive summary of the 2025 findings and the preliminary findings of the 2026 count.
The verified data for the 2025 count released by the FMCoC indicates a 9.2% increase in homelessness between 2023 and 2025 across the two counties.
After the criminalization of Fresno’s unhoused residents with the implementation of the No Camping Ordinance in 2024, local leaders expected to see a drop in the numbers of unhoused residents in Fresno. Instead, the numbers have increased.
Madera has an ordinance similar to Fresno’s, punishing unsheltered people with fines up to $1,000 and jail time.
Unverified data from the recently conducted 2026 PIT count indicates that there are 1,619 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and 1,635 people experiencing sheltered homelessness in the region.
However, those that refused to take the survey were not counted in 2026, distinguishing it from past surveys and leading to questions about the accuracy of the count this year.
“The recently released Fresno (and Madera) County Point-in-Time (PIT) count reports show homelessness increasing in 2025 and decreasing in 2026,” said long time advocate Desiree Martinez and founder of the non-profit We Are Not Indivisible in a statement to Community Alliance about the report.
“While I respect the effort that goes into conducting these counts, I believe the numbers do not fully reflect what many of us are witnessing on the ground today.”
Accuracy is a critical issue because federal and state funding agencies use the numbers to allocate critical resources for shelters, housing and services.
Experts, local officials and FMCoC chair Laura Moreno have admitted that the count is not accurate. Moreno told the Fresno Bee in 2023,” I’m absolutely sure we are missing people. The transient nature of the homeless population means that it can be easy to miss some of the people who are seldom out in the open and easy to see.”
2025 Verified Numbers
4,905 persons in the FMoC region experienced homelessness at the time of the 2025 count, a nine percent increase from 2023.
3,000 (62%) were unsheltered, 1,693 were staying at an emergency shelter and 170 were enrolled in a transitional housing program. 68% were male, 30% were female and 1% were transgender.
Of the 4,905 total persons homeless on the night of the 2025 count, 1,400 people (29%) reported a substance abuse disorder and 1,500, (31%) reported a serious mental illness. Studies show that up to two thirds of unhoused adults live with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
There are an estimated 700 to 750 homeless individuals aged 55 and older across the Fresno and Madera regions. The older adult demographic is the fastest-growing unhoused population in the area, largely driven by skyrocketing rents and fixed incomes that have not kept pace.
Current data indicates that many elderly individuals experiencing homelessness live alone, relying solely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security.
Handcuffs and No Housing
“Over the past several years, Fresno has received unprecedented levels of funding to address homelessness,” said Martinez.
“Those investments created shelter beds, outreach programs, supportive services and housing opportunities. However, what concerns me is what has happened since the 2026 PIT Count was conducted in January.
“We have seen multiple shelters and housing programs close or begin closing. Families and individuals who were previously housed or sheltered are being displaced back into homelessness.
At the same time, new housing developments intended to serve unhoused residents have remained vacant while people continue sleeping outside.”
Touting the results of the unverified and admittedly inaccurate 2026 PIT count, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said “[It] shows that we are actually making a great deal of progress. Five and a half years ago, when I became mayor, I really felt like we were losing the battle.”
When Community Alliance asked what impact the no camping ordinance had on decreasing homelessness, the mayor responded that it “had no effect.”
There have been over 2,000 arrests and citations of unsheltered persons since September 2024 when the ordinance was implemented, more than the reported numbers of unsheltered persons on the streets.
Records indicate the Fresno Police Department (FPD) and, in particular, the Fresno Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART) have arrested or cited many unhoused persons more than once.
Advocates report people are constantly being harassed and forced into hiding in dangerous places to avoid the HART who forcibly displace unhoused individuals and destroy their personal property on a regular basis, including essential survival items such as warm clothing, medications and vital documents like birth certificates and IDs, which are mandatory for securing permanent housing.
The sudden, forced nature of HART’s actions exacerbates mental health issues, disrupts continuity of critical medical care for managing chronic physical conditions and psychiatric disorders and increases the risk of premature death while increasing the likelihood of life-threatening infections, hospitalizations and fatal drug overdoses.
Being pushed into more isolated, remote environments makes them harder to reach for street medicine teams and support networks.
It also forces individuals into new neighborhoods where they may face increased conflict with other unhoused groups or local residents.
Despite all of this, the Mayor is proposing to fund a second HART, one of only five additions to the FY 2027 general fund. The second HART would comprise one sergeant and four officers at an annual cost of $907,000.
At the recent city budget hearings, council member Miguel Arias and several other council members spoke in support of an additional HART, claiming that the residents and business owners of Fresno want an additional team to move homeless people out of sight and out of mind, to try and make them disappear.
Many community members spoke out against adding the second team and no one spoke in support of it.
They lobbied for rent control, more low income housing, the construction of tiny home villages and the establishment of “safe camps” in the interim,
Instead, the mayor and council are supporting criminalization and heavy law enforcement.
Instead of showing real leadership, the mayor and council are tailing their constituents to continue to implement a failed, expensive, cruel and even deadly policy.
