Despite what many people believe, the homeless epidemic is not on the rise in Hayward.

Since as early as 2003, surveys, questionnaires and censuses taken by subcontractors of Alameda County have been used gauge the size of the homeless population in the East Bay. However, Hayward has become a victim of these outlier cities in the Bay Area and has been lumped into the rising homeless problem in the Bay Area.

Yet out of the homeless population rates for cities in the East Bay, Oakland and Berkeley are both significantly higher than Hayward’s, according to a 2014 Alameda Countywide Homeless Count and Survey authorized by the county and conducted by Aspire Consulting LLC. in association with the EveryOne Home organization.

In the report, there were 4,264 listed in one of the three homeless categories in the East Bay, though, out of the homeless population rates for cities in the East Bay, Oakland and Berkeley are both significantly higher than Hayward’s, Hayward holds just a small percentage of that overall population with less than one percent of its 151,574 residents listed as homeless. With over 1.5 million people in Alameda County, just .28 percent are listed as homeless.

The three categories of homelessness are described in the report. Unsheltered homeless, people with no income that live on the streets or in abandoned buildings, chronically homeless, people who have some type of income, usually government assistance, but do not maintain a steady address and in all likelihood live with a relative, friend or shelter and family homeless, consist of two or more people that do not have a permanent address or steady financial income which constantly fluctuates their living situation.

Categories were created and defined in partnership with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to create a more narrow scope of the homeless population in the county. HUD Secretary Julian Castro noted that while many people are familiar with what homeless means there are new forms of this epidemic constantly arising.

“As our economy continues to improve, we need to ensure our budget provides opportunity for vulnerable families living on the margins and restores the harmful cuts to our rental assistance programs,” Castro said in a press release last month.

Many families who lost their homes to foreclosures and other financial issues primarily generated by the poor economy have been placed in the family homeless category in order to provide a more accurate numerical assessment to the problem in the East Bay.

Images On The Rise is a non-profit organization in Hayward founded by Bessie Daniels and her daughter Marie Sholes in 1992. Sholes said the organization was created to provide transitional housing for homeless men, women and women with children…

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