Amid end to COVID help, homelessness surging in many cities

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE, MICHAEL CASEY and GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Homelessness is expected to be up when the federal government releases results from an annual count in coming months, the first full tally since the coronavirus pandemic began. Experts say that with the end of pandemic relief measures that kept many people housed, the crisis is deepening. But the story is not uniform across the U.S. In two high-rent state capitals, the numbers have been moving in opposite directions. In Boston, where there’s been improvement, officials credit a strategy of targeting housing to people who have long been on the streets. In Sacramento, California, people are becoming homeless faster than they can be housed.