SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There’s nothing Margie Oneal Johnson said she likes more than going down and pottering around in her apartment complex’s garden.
“Right now, I got sweet potatoes growing right there,” Johnson said. “And then I have basil right here. And then I got radishes growing right here.”
She said she was homeless for a time, living out of her car after being in an unstable situation with her partner.
Thankfully, Johnson said, she’s found a place at Central Sacramento Studios, an affordable housing complex in downtown Sacramento.
“You know, it’s a roof over my head and I’m not sleeping in my car,” Johnson said. “So right now, you know, to get my Section 8 papers, I got to be here for a year, and then after that, I can move anywhere I want to.”
The apartment complex is a result of the state’s Project Homekey program.
These types of programs are a large reason officials report for the recently released point-in-time count numbers of homeless people in the Sacramento area falling by 29%.
Two years ago, the Sacramento count of 9,278 made headlines for having more homeless people than San Francisco.
This year’s 6,615 number is a sharp drop, something Trent Simmons with Sacramento Steps Forward, who conducted the count, said is a positive sign.
“It’s definitely positive,” said Simmons, the director of data and analytics for Sacramento Steps Forward. “And I think it really speaks to the collaboration in the investments that Sacramento has really been trying to put forth.”
Simmons said even though there was a drop, everyone is aware there is a lot more work to do.
Something Angela Hassell, the executive director of Loaves and Fishes, who has served the homeless population in Sacramento for decades, agrees with, but she said she was surprised with the drop in numbers, when considering their own numbers.
“Our experience, is not supporting that remarkable decrease in numbers,” Hassell said. “And in fact, it didn’t. We saw in a similar time period between 2022 and 2023, we saw a 6% increase in the overall number of folks that come to our campus for assistance.”
Simmons said they did their due diligence on the results and stressed that the homeless population often fluctuates.
“I think it’s important to remember that it is a point in time count,” Simmons said. “And even next year we could technically see an increase, and then after that, see a decrease.”
Johnson said more people will soon be able to call her complex home.
“From here, all the way over to the other side [pointing outside her apartment], all of that is going to be gone, and then it’s going to be a five-story high building,” Johnson said.
An important addition Johnson said because too many don’t have a place to call home.