State commission hears 20-year review of violence against people experiencing homelessness

OAKLAND, Calif. — The California Commission on the State of Hate on Dec. 5 heard a 20-year review of violence against people experiencing homelessness and discussed policy steps to reduce those attacks.

Donald Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, told commissioners the coalition’s review of incidents from roughly 1999–2022 found more than 1,900 reported violent incidents against people experiencing homelessness and 588 deaths tied to those acts. "This report is a severe undercount of the actual number of violent events that happened," Whitehead said, citing limits in how medical examiners and some law enforcement agencies track victims by housing status. He also noted nationwide point-in-time estimates of homelessness exceed 770,000 people.

The presentation linked spikes in violence to criminalizing rhetoric and local ordinances that target people who are unsheltered. "We know that criminalization is not a solution to homelessness," Whitehead said, adding that criminalizing practices can exacerbate homelessness and that recent litigation and policy changes have created new legal and operational hurdles.

Commissioners pressed Whitehead on concrete responses. Commissioner Southers asked who sets and enforces shelter-safety standards; Whitehead replied there is no single national overseer, pointed to emergency shelter grant program standards developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and described ongoing efforts — including a Reimagining Shelter Project and work with state attorneys general — to produce minimum standards and accountability mechanisms. He warned of a possible HUD funding shift away from permanent supportive housing toward transitional models and urged caution, saying permanent supportive housing remains a proven solution for many people.

Whitehead described prevention efforts he said have worked in some California cities, including limited guaranteed-income pilots that he said provided about $1,400 and reduced entrance into the homeless system in pilot contexts, and adaptive reuse programs in Los Angeles that convert vacant buildings to housing. He urged improved federal data collection on victimization and said one long-term goal is to add housing status as a protected characteristic in civil-rights statutes, while acknowledging that would require reopening federal civil-rights legislation and presents legal and political challenges.

Public comment reiterated legislative requests. A member of the public who identified himself during remarks urged the commission to support state legislation to add homelessness and housing status to hate-crime protections and to consider mandating the commission’s law-enforcement training video for agencies that have not adopted it.

The commission took routine procedural business following the presentation, approving minutes from prior meetings by consensus and receiving subcommittee updates on resources, patterns and community forums. Commissioners discussed scheduling community forums on weekends and reaching rural counties in northern California.

Chair Brian Levin closed the meeting by reiterating the commission’s emphasis on data-driven work and community outreach and by directing staff to share resources for reporting hate incidents and for community conflict resolution.

What’s next: The commission plans to continue work on data collection and prevention strategies and will solicit input at its January meeting on locations and timing for next year’s community forums.