The latest report from HUD shows California leading the nation in homelessness and more than 80% of unsheltered individuals in the state’s big cities, Fresno among them. The high cost of housing and mental health and drug addiction are among the reasons that people live on the streets. Through Project Offramp, Fresno Mayor, Jerry Dyer hopes to tackle homelessness and housing affordability by renovating dilapidated motels and using them for temporary and transitional housing. According to Dyer, there are about 4,000 homeless individuals in the city of Fresno, of which 423 individuals have been temporarily housed and removed from the city’s freeways. “There’s absolutely no way we’re going to address all 4,000 of those people in six months or even in one year,” said Dyer. “It’s going to require us to be steadfast over the next four years in order to make sure that we’re housing and servicing as many as we possibly can.”
…A recent report by the California Housing Partnership reveals that 36,000 low-income households are without affordable housing in Fresno County. The median price of a single-family home last May in Fresno County was $361,500, an increase of more than 22% compared to May 2020…