Towards a New Understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness

California is home to 12% of the USA's population, but to 30% of the nation’s homeless population, some 170,000 people. It is also where half the nation’s unsheltered population live. While homelessness is a major issue for California, there are many conflicting ideas about what to do about it. To design effective programs and policies to address homelessness, we need to understand who is experiencing it, how they became homeless, what their experiences are, and what is preventing them from exiting homelessness. To answer these questions, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative conducted the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), the largest representative study of homelessness since the mid-1990s and the first largescale representative study to use mixed methods (surveys and in-depth interviews). The study was done at the request of California governor Gavin Newsom’s administration, but was not funded by the state. Guided by advisory boards composed of people with lived experience of homelessness and those who work on homelessness programs and policies, we selected eight counties that represent the state’s diversity and recruited a representative sample of adults 18 and older experiencing homelessness throughout California. The investigators conducted the research between October 2021 and November 2022. To augment survey responses, we recruited 365 participants to participate in in-depth interviews. With this context, CASPEH provides evidence to shape programs and policy responses to the homelessness crisis.